Friday, 29 January 2016

homework and exercises - Free Particle Path Integral Matsubara Frequency


I am trying to calculate $$Z = \int\limits_{\phi(\beta) = \phi(0) =0} D \phi\ e^{-\frac{1}{2} \int_0^{\beta} d\tau \dot{\phi}^2}$$ without transforming it to the Matsubara frequency space, I can show that $Z = \sqrt{\frac{1}{2\pi \beta}}$. However, I have a problem in obtaining the same result in the Matsubara frequency space: \begin{equation} \phi (\tau) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{\beta}} \left( \sum_{n} \phi_n \ e^{i\omega_n\tau} \right), \end{equation} with $\sum_n \phi_n =0, \omega_n = \frac{2\pi n}{\beta}$. And \begin{equation} Z = \int \prod_n D\phi_n\ \delta\left(\sum_n \phi_n\right)\ e^{-\frac{1}{2} \sum_n \phi_n \phi_{-n} \omega_n^2 } \end{equation} which, I think, vanishes.


I guess the problem lies in the measure. Any comments?



Info: I write the Schulman's derivation in imaginary time here. \begin{eqnarray} Z &=& \int\limits_{\phi(0) =\phi(\beta) = 0} D\phi(\tau) e^{-\frac{1}{2}\int_0^{\beta}d\tau\dot{\phi}^2}\\ &=& \text{lim}_{N \rightarrow \infty} (\frac{1}{2\pi \epsilon})^{(N+1)/2} \int d\phi_1 \dots d\phi_N e^{-\frac{1}{2\epsilon} \sum_{i =0}^N (\phi_{i+1} -\phi_i)^2} \end{eqnarray}


Then, we can use the identity \begin{equation} \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} du \sqrt{\frac{a}{\pi}} e^{-a(x-u)^2}\sqrt{\frac{b}{\pi}} e^{-b(u -y)^2} = \sqrt{\frac{ab}{\pi(a+b)}} e^{-\frac{ab}{a+b}(x-y)^2} \end{equation} to evaluate the sum to be \begin{equation} Z = \sqrt{\frac{1}{2\pi \beta}}. \end{equation}




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