The eta function in Chern-Simons field theory

Abstract

We discuss a Schwinger expansion technique for computing the η-function of a first-order operator in the pure Chern-Simons quantum field theory. When evaluated at zero, the η-function of this operator gives essentially the one-loop correction to the partition function. We illustrate this technique by explicitly computing the one-loop two-point function in this theory on a flat spacetime background.