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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Changing dimension and time: two well-founded and practical techniques for path integration in quantum physics

Werner Fischer, Hajo Leschke, Peter Müller

Published Jul 7, 1992• 42 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In a reasonably self-contained presentation mathematical rigour is supplied to the important ideas of solving certain non-Gaussian path integrals by changes of dimension and/or path-dependent time transformations. The resulting genuine path-integral calculus neither requires discretization prescriptions nor sophisticated methods from the theory of stochastic differential equations. The power of the calculus is illustrated by two standard quantum-physics applications. First, the calculation of the time-dependent propagator corresponding to a particle on the half-line in a harmonic plus inverse-square potential is shown to be a simple exercise. Second, the first rigorous derivation of the energy-dependent Green function of the one-dimensional Morse system is given.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/25/13/029

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In a reasonably self-contained presentation mathematical rigour is supplied to the important ideas of solving certain non-Gaussian path integrals by changes of dimension and/or path-dependent time transformations. The resulting genuine path-integral calculus neither requires discretization prescriptions nor sophisticated methods from the theory of stochastic differential equations. The power of the calculus is illustrated by two standard quantum-physics applications. First, the calculation of the time-dependent propagator corresponding to a particle on the half-line in a harmonic plus inverse-square potential is shown to be a simple exercise. Second, the first rigorous derivation of the energy-dependent Green function of the one-dimensional Morse system is given.
Abstract Path integrals are a central tool when it comes to describing quantum or thermal fluctuations of particles or fields. Their success dates back to Feynman who showed how to use them within the framework of quantum mechanics. Since then, path integrals have pervaded all areas of physics where fluctuation effects, quantum and/or thermal, are of paramount importance. Their appeal is based on the fact that one converts a problem formulated in terms of operators into one of sampling classical paths with a given weight. Path integrals are the mirror image of our conventional Riemann integrals, with functions replacing the real numbers one usually sums over. However, unlike conventional integrals, path integration suffers a serious drawback: in general, one cannot make non-linear changes of variables without committing an error of some sort. Thus, no path-integral based calculus is possible. Here we identify which are the deep mathematical reasons causing this important caveat, and we come up with cures for systems described by one degree of freedom. Our main result is a construction of path integration free of this longstanding problem, through a direct time-discretization procedure.
There are two widely used approaches to quantum field theory. The first is based on field operators and the canonical quantisation of these field operators. The second approach involves path integrals over classical fields. This chapter develops the idea of path integrals (or functional integrals) in a very intuitive way without any attempt at mathematical precision or rigour. It exploits the analogy between vectors and functions, and between matrices and differential operators on functions. Since very few path integrals can be performed exactly, the chapter concentrates on Gaussian path integrals. These are important in their own right, but much more so because they can be used in approximation schemes when the exact path integral is intractable.
Introduction Preliminary remarks The path integral formalism is one of the most important tools in modern theoretical physics. Integration in functional spaces was considered for the first time by Norbert Wiener in his studies of diffusion processes [60, 61]. The corresponding integration measure is now known as the Wiener measure, i.e. the so-called Gaussian path integrals were studied. In quantum mechanics, functional integrals were introduced by R. Feynmann [62, 63] who was inspired by important observations due to P. A. M. Dirac concerning a relation between wave function and classical action [64, 65]. In modern physics the path integral formalism is applied not only to developing a quantum description for systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom as, for example, in quantum field theories or condensed matter physics, but also to ordinary quantum mechanical problems. Moreover there is a tendency to reformulate standard quantum mechanical problems (such as a particle in a “box” or potential well [66, 67], or a particle in the Coulomb field [68]) within the framework of the path integral method. The reason for doing this is rather obvious: physicists develop a new mathematical tool, a new language and, in order to comprehend all of its subtleties, it is necessary to investigate as many concrete examples as possible. Use of the path integral formalism is widespread in quantum field theory because it is the most adequate mathematical tool for a wide range of problems which allows, not only for elegant formulation of problems, but also for a great deal of simplification of their theoretical analysis.
The path integral is a method that often used in the quantum problems calculation. For example; the calculation of quantum system energy that has complex potential form. The method gives more easily than perturbation method. The method is also used to derive Green function, which usually used Fourier transformation. The Green function has widely application in quantum physics, since it used to compute solution of inhomogen differential equation as Schrodinger equation. In the particle physics, the Green function used as propagator in Feynman’s diagram. Considering the importance of Green function, and the powerfull of path integral method, in the paper, the method used to derive the formula of Green function for quantum harmonic oscillator system. The system has widely application to give more information of physical phenomena, for example, the atomic vibration in solid state. The result was also compared with Fourier transformation method and both give the same result as hoped.