TY - JOUR A1 - Bär, Christian A1 - Pfaeffle, Frank T1 - Asymptotic heat kernel expansion in the semi-classical limit N2 - Let H-h = h(2)L + V, where L is a self-adjoint Laplace type operator acting on sections of a vector bundle over a compact Riemannian manifold and V is a symmetric endomorphism field. We derive an asymptotic expansion for the heat kernel of H-h as h SE arrow 0. As a consequence we get an asymptotic expansion for the quantum partition function and we see that it is asymptotic to the classical partition function. Moreover, we show how to bound the quantum partition function for positive h by the classical partition function. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www.springerlink.com/content/100467 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00220-009-0973-3 SN - 0010-3616 ER -