This talk summarizes some recent progress in computing functional determinants in quantum field theory. The main example is the recent computation of the full quark mass dependence of the fermion determinant in an instan-ton background. Previously, only the small mass (chiral limit) and large mass (heavy quark limit) were known. Our results are found for any mass and interpolate smoothly between the two extremes. This is an example of a more general formalism whereby a functional determinant can be computed exactly when the relevant fluctuation operator can be separated into partial waves.
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