My paper on the heat-kernel coefficients of `non-minimal' operators

Some years ago while collaborating with Bachir Moussallam, I ran into the issue of so-called non-minimal operators and their heat-kernel coefficients which is of interest in chiral perturbation theory with virtual photons. On my own I tried to understand the issue and the results, found lots of results with no apparent connection, contradictory references, etc.. So I decided to sit down and work through the masses of xerox copies of papers on the subject and wrote a draft of a paper pointing out several connections, simplifications, working out special cases, etc.. I sent it to Journal of Physics and got one report which said it should be published as it is very useful, and another saying that all this is well known. It went to an adjudicator who pointed the possible reason why I was finding some inconsistencies, and said that the paper could not be published in that form. When I took this reason into account all the inconsistencies vanished and it was submitted again, and the round had almost the identical outcome as regards referees. The new adjudicator agreed that it should be published after many many more changes were to be accounted for. The happy outcome of this voyage of discovery may be found here. I am posting this as a part of my new policy of explaining on my blog what I do in my research as well, for the benefit of all the three readers of this blog!