Contour-ordered Green’s functions in stochastic field theory

Abstract

We briefly review the functional formulation of the perturbation theory for various Green’s functions in quantum field theory. In particular, we discuss the contour-ordered representation of Green’s functions at a finite temperature. We show that the perturbation expansion of time-dependent Green’s functions at a finite temperature can be constructed using the standard Wick rules in the functional form without introducing complex time and evolution backward in time. We discuss the factorization problem for the corresponding functional integral. We construct the Green’s functions of the solution of stochastic differential equations in the Schwinger-Keldysh form with a functional-integral representation with explicitly intertwined physical and auxiliary fields.