Application of the Heat Kernel Method to the Constituent Quark Model at Finite Temperature

The Heat Kernel Method is applied to the constituent quark model. We calculate the effect of thermal quark fluctuations on the meson action and the resulting quark condensate and pi pi-scattering amplitude at finite temperature. The quarks produce a chiral phase transition only by their effect on the mesonic coupling constants. The s-wave isospin zero pi pi-scattering amplitude diverges near the phase transition showing the necessity for a more sophisticated treatment of meson fluctuations.