High Temperature Massless Scalar Partition Function on General Stationary Backgrounds
High Energy Physics - Theory
2025-11-06 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
The high temperature equilibrium partition function of a massless real scalar field nonminimally coupled to the scalar curvature is computed at second order in the derivative expansion on a generic stationary background. Using covariant perturbation theory, the expression of the thermal partition function at second order in powers of curvatures is also obtained, including its nonlocal contributions. For conformal coupling, the Weyl anomaly at fourth order in derivatives and second order in curvatures is evaluated using both expansions and the results found to be consistent.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.01333,
title = {High Temperature Massless Scalar Partition Function on General Stationary Backgrounds},
author = {Manuel Valle and Miguel A. Vazquez-Mozo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.01333},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
18 pages, no figures. v2: minor changes, reference added, and typos corrected. It matches the version to be published in Physical Review D