Physics – Quantum Physics
Scientific paper
2008-12-10
Physics
Quantum Physics
9 pages, 5 figures
Scientific paper
We present a unified formulation for quantum statistical physics based on the representation of the density matrix as a functional integral. We identify the stochastic variable of the effective statistical theory that we derive as a boundary configuration and a zero mode relevant to the discussion of infrared physics. We illustrate our formulation by computing the partition function of an interacting one-dimensional quantum mechanical system at finite temperature from the path-integral representation for the density matrix. The method of calculation provides an alternative to the usual sum over periodic trajectories: it sums over paths with coincident endpoints, and includes non-vanishing boundary terms. An appropriately modified expansion into Matsubara modes provides a natural separation of the zero-mode physics. This feature may be useful in the treatment of infrared divergences that plague the perturbative approach in thermal field theory.
Bessa A.
de Carvalho Carlos A. A.
Fraga Eduardo S.
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