Analysis of path integrals at low temperature: box formula, occupation time and ergodic approximation (Q2460267)

Starting from the Feynman-Kac representation of the density matrix in terms of path integrals, one derives a new representation involving the occupation times for Brownian motions constrained to stay inside finite size boxes. This model is more suitable to tackle some problems at low temperature. From this box formula one can obtain an ergodic approximation which results from truncating the cumulant expansion of the density matrix. Lastly, one considers the ergodic approximation corresponding to symmetric and monoatomic potentials.