TWO-LOOP APPROACH TO THE EFFECTIVE ACTION IN QUANTUM GRAVITY

Abstract

For the first time we present the general formalism and results of calculation of the two-loop effective action in Einstein quantum gravity on the background MN × Tk, where MN is Minkowski space and Tk is a k-dimensional torus. We discuss the case of a zero cosmological constant as well as of a nonzero one. The method of calculating variations of the action on a metric tensor and the technique of calculating momentum integrals in dimensional regularization are presented. Some applications to spontaneous compactification are discussed, as well as some prospects.