Stochastic quantization of the nonlinear sigma model and the background field method

Abstract

The background field method is a useful scheme for calculation of the effective action in conventional quantum field theory. In stochastic quantization this approach is introduced by using auxiliary fields, as suggested by Okano. In this work, we implement the background field method, using the normal coordinate expansion, for the nonlinear sigma model on a general Riemannian manifold in the context of stochastic quantization. We also calculate, making use of this novel formulation, the action necessary for investigation of the divergences, at least at the one-loop level.