Time discretization of functional integrals

DOI10.1088/0305-4470/33/16/305MaRDI QIDQ4507681zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors J. H. Samson

Publication date 8 October 2000

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0003109, https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/11610

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Numerical integration (65D30) Computational methods for problems pertaining to quantum theory (81-08) Path integrals in quantum mechanics (81S40)

Abstract: Numerical evaluation of functional integrals usually involves a finite (L-slice) discretization of the imaginary-time axis. In the auxiliary-field method, the L-slice approximant to the density matrix can be evaluated as a function of inverse temperature at any finite L as $$, if the density matrix $$ in the static approximation is known. We investigate the convergence of the partition function $$, the internal energy and the density of states $g_L(E)$ (the inverse Laplace transform of $Z_L$), as $Loinfty$. For the simple harmonic oscillator, $g_L(E)$ is a normalized truncated Fourier series for the exact density of states. When the auxiliary-field approach is applied to spin systems, approximants to the density of states and heat capacity can be negative. Approximants to the density matrix for a spin-1/2 dimer are found in closed form for all L by appending a self-interaction to the divergent Gaussian integral and analytically continuing to zero self-interaction. Because of this continuation, the coefficient of the singlet projector in the approximate density matrix can be negative. For a spin dimer, $Z_L$ is an even function of the coupling constant for L<3: ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic coupling can be distinguished only for $Lge3$, where a Berry phase appears in the functional integral. At any non-zero temperature, the exact partition function is recovered as $Loinfty$.

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