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Quantum statistical correlations in thermal field theories: boundary effective theory
- Source :
- Phys.Rev.D82:065010,2010
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- We show that the one-loop effective action at finite temperature for a scalar field with quartic interaction has the same renormalized expression as at zero temperature if written in terms of a certain classical field $\phi_c$, and if we trade free propagators at zero temperature for their finite-temperature counterparts. The result follows if we write the partition function as an integral over field eigenstates (boundary fields) of the density matrix element in the functional Schr\"{o}dinger field-representation, and perform a semiclassical expansion in two steps: first, we integrate around the saddle-point for fixed boundary fields, which is the classical field $\phi_c$, a functional of the boundary fields; then, we perform a saddle-point integration over the boundary fields, whose correlations characterize the thermal properties of the system. This procedure provides a dimensionally-reduced effective theory for the thermal system. We calculate the two-point correlation as an example.<br />Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure
- Subjects :
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- Phys.Rev.D82:065010,2010
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1006.3784
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.065010