Functional determinants by contour integration methods. (Q1419790)

The authors give a simple and easily accessible method which uses contour integration methods to derive formulae for functional determinants, and show how these results are modified to give analogous expressions for determinants with zero mode extracted. In fact, they describe the method in the most straightforward case: obtaining the functional determinant of a second order differential operator with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Having illustrated the method, they discuss how the formalism has to be modified to give results when any zero mode which exists has been omitted. Then, they extend the treatment to general boundary conditions and briefly discuss the extension to systems of differential equations.