Path integrals for spinning particles, stationary phase and the Duistermaat–Heckmann theorem

DOI10.1063/1.531428zbMATH Open0911.70013arXivcond-mat/9506109OpenAlexW2037833550MaRDI QIDQ5284397FDOQ5284397

Authors: E. Ercolessi, F. Napoli, Pierbiagio Pieri, Giuseppe Morandi 

Publication date: 27 February 1997

Published in: Journal of Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We examine the problem of the evaluation of both the propagator and of the partition function of a spinning particle in an external field at the classical as well as the quantum level, in connection with the asserted exactness of the saddle point approximation (SPA) for this problem. At the classical level we argue that exactness of the SPA stems from the fact that the dynamics (on the two--sphere $S^2$) of a classical spinning particle in a magnetic field is the reduction from $$ to $S^2$ of a linear dynamical system on $$. At the quantum level, however, and within the path integral approach, the restriction, inherent to the use of the SPA, to regular paths clashes with the fact that no regulators are present in the action that enters the path integral. This is shown to lead to a prefactor for the path integral that is strictly divergent except in the classical limit. A critical comparison is made with the various approaches to the same problem that have been presented in the literature. The validity of a formula given in literature for the spin propagator is extended to the case of motion in an arbitrary magnetic field.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9506109

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zbMATH Keywords

quadratic Hamiltoniansemiclassical approximationEhrenfest theoremcomplex saddle point approximationflat four-dimensional phase space modelpropagator of particle in external magnetic fieldspin partition function

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Motion of charged particles (78A35) Path integrals in quantum mechanics (81S40) Hamiltonian and Lagrangian mechanics (70H99)

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Cited In (7)

• Pure bosonic world-line path integral representation for fermionic determinants, non-Abelian Stokes theorem, and quasiclassical approximation in QCD
• RECOVERING THE STATIONARY PHASE CONDITION FOR ACCURATELY OBTAINING SCATTERING AND TUNNELING TIMES
• The semiclassical propagator for spin coherent states
• Comment on `Semiclassical dynamics of a spin-½ in an arbitrary magnetic field'
• Evolution of superoscillations for spinning particles
• A rigorous path integral for quantum spin using flat-space Wiener regularization
• Isolated objects and their evolution: a derivation of the Propagator's path integral for spinless elementary particles

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