Abstract
A pedagogical introduction to the theory of a Gaussian scalar field which shows firstly, how the whole theory is encapsulated in the Wightman function [Formula: see text] regarded abstractly as a two-index tensor on the vector space of (spacetime) field configurations, and secondly how one can arrive at [Formula: see text] starting from nothing but the retarded Green function [Formula: see text]. Conceiving the theory in this manner seems well suited to curved spacetimes and to causal sets. It makes it possible to provide a general spacetime region with a distinguished “vacuum” or “ground state”, and to recognize some interesting formal relationships, including a general condition on [Formula: see text] expressing zero-entropy or “purity”.
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