Evaluation of the heat kernel in Riemann - Cartan space

Abstract

A method for calculating the asymptotic expansion coefficients of the heat kernel associated with a fermion of spin in an arbitrary-dimensional Riemann - Cartan spacetime is presented. It is shown that the first two coefficients in our approach agree with those given by using the proper time and the normal coordinate methods. In a four-dimensional massless fermion model, the explicit expression of the coefficients is given in the form of separating torsions from the curvature and the covariant differentiation.