Path integral quantization of gravitational interactions

Some of the local symmetry properties of quantum field theory in curved space-time and quantized gravitational interactions are discussed. We concentrate on local symmetry properties, and thus the asymptotically flat space-time is assumed, whenever necessary, in the hope that the precise boundary conditions will not modify the short distance structure in quantum theory. We adopt the DeWitt-Faddeev-Popov prescription of the Feynman path integral with a complete gauge fixing. The topics discussed include: (i) A brief review of the path integral derivation of chiral anomalies in flat space-time. (ii) The specification of the gravitational path integral measure, which avoids all the ''fake'' gravitational anomalies, and the applications of this path integral prescription to 1) effective potential in generalized Kaluza-Klein theory, 2) 4-dimensional conformal anomalies, 3) conformal symmetry in pure conformal gravity, 4) bosonic string theory as a gravitational theory in d = 2, 5) Virasoro condition and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in the path integral formalism, 6) gravitational anomalies and the definition of the energy-momentum tensor. (author)