The method introduced and applied in this book is shown to give an unambiguous connection to perturbation theory, implementing standard renormalization conditions even for non-perturbative backgrounds. It both gives new theoretical insights, for example illuminating longstanding questions regarding Casimir stresses, and also provides an efficient analytic and numerical tool well suited to practical calculations. Last but not least, it elucidates in a concrete context many of the subtleties of quantum field theory, such as divergences, regularization and renormalization, by connecting them to more familiar results in quantum mechanics.

While addressed primarily at young researchers entering the field and nonspecialist researchers with backgrounds in theoretical and mathematical physics, introductory chapters on the theoretical aspects of the method make the book self-contained and thus suitable for advanced graduate students.