LOCAL ZETA REGULARIZATION AND THE SCALAR CASIMIR EFFECT: A General Approach based on Integral Kernels

Zeta regularization is a method to treat the divergent quantities appearing in several areas of mathematical physics and, in particular, in quantum field theory; it is based on the fascinating idea that a finite value can be ascribed to a formally divergent expression via analytic continuation with respect to a complex regulating parameter.This book provides a thorough overview of zeta regularization for the vacuum expectation values of the most relevant observables of a quantized, neutral ...