Functional Integral Formalism Research Articles

Exact Functional Integration of Radial and Complex Slave‐Boson Fields: Thermodynamics and Dynamics of the Two‐Site Extended Hubbard Model

AbstractThe functional integral formulation of the Hubbard model when treated in its Kotliar‐Ruckenstein representation in the radial gauge involves fermionic, as well as complex and radial slave boson fields. In order to improve on the understanding of the interplay of the three types of fields, and on the nature of the latter, a comprehensive investigation of an exactly solvable two‐site cluster is performed, as it entails all pitfalls embodied in this approach. It is first shown that the exact partition function is recovered, even when incorporating in the calculation the square root factors that are at the heart of the representation, when suitably regularized. It is shown that using radial slave boson fields allows to overcome all hurdles following from the normal ordering procedure. It is then demonstrated that this applies to the Green's function as well, and to the correlation functions of physical interest, thereby answering the criticisms raised by Schönhammer [K. Schönhammer, Phys. Rev. B 1990 42, 2591]. In addition, the investigation generalizes the calculations to the Hubbard model extended by a non‐local Coulomb interaction.

Temperature dependence on magnetic moment formation at a Ce impurity in Gd, Tb, and Dy: An intermediate valence model

Based on the influence of the Ce intermediate valence on magnetic properties in metallic systems, we theoretically study the local magnetic moment formation at a Ce impurity diluted in Gd, Tb, and Dy rare earth metals at finite temperatures. To investigate this point, our model considers the functional integral formalism, coherent potential approximation, and extracting relative charge from the Ce 4f-resonance and transferring it to the 5d Ce band at the temperature range from 0K to Curie critical temperature. As a result, our self-consistent calculation, focusing on temperature dependence, shows that the intermediate valence model explains the regimes of the local magnetic moments and magnetic hyperfine fields. Moreover, our results for the temperature dependence on magnetic hyperfine fields at the Ce site in Gd and Tb agree with experimental reports.

The \(120^{0}\) ordered phase of the spin-1 \(J_{1} - J_{2}\) antiferromagnetic Heisenbeberg model on a triangular lattice

We study the effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations on the excitation energy spectrum and sublattice magnetization of the 1200 ordered phase of the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a triangular lattice with nearest J1 and next-nearest-neighbor J2 exchange interactions. The auxiliary fermionic representation of the spin operators within a functional integral formalism with an imaginary Lagrange multiplier is employed to retain an exact constraint of single particle occupancy. Representing the classical ground state by Luttinger-Tisza ordering vector Q one may consider the fluctuation contributions to the free energy of the system in the entire range of the coupling parameters. We derived the magnon spectrum in one-loop approximation and the magnetization taking into account thermal fluctuations. The obtained results are compared with the result of the linear spin-wave approximation and experimental findings on compound NiGa2S4.

Coarse graining in time with the functional renormalization group: Relaxation in Brownian motion.

We apply the functional renormalization group (fRG) to study relaxation in a stochastic process governed by an overdamped Langevin equationwith one degree of freedom, exploiting the connection with supersymmetric quantum mechanics in imaginary time. After reviewing the functional integral formulation of the system and its underlying symmetries, including the resulting Ward-Takahashi identities for arbitrary initial conditions, we compute the effective action Γ from the fRG, approximated in terms of the leading and subleading terms in the gradient expansion: the local potential approximation and wave-function renormalization, respectively. This is achieved by coarse graining the thermal fluctuations in time resulting in, e.g., an effective potential incorporating fluctuations at all timescales. We then use the resulting effective equationsof motion to describe the decay of the covariance and the relaxation of the average position and variance toward their equilibrium values at different temperatures. We use as examples a simple polynomial potential, an unequal Lennard-Jones type potential, and a more complex potential with multiple trapping wells and barriers. We find that these are all handled well, with the accuracy of the approximations improving as the relaxation's spectral representation shifts to lower eigenvalues, in line with expectations about the validity of the gradient expansion. The spectral representation's range also correlates with temperature, leading to the conclusion that the gradient expansion works better for higher temperatures than lower ones. This paper demonstrates the ability of the fRG to expedite the computation of statistical objects in otherwise long-timescale simulations, acting as a first step to more complicated systems.

One-loop matching of the type-II seesaw model onto the Standard Model effective field theory

In this paper, we continue to construct the low-energy effective field theories (EFTs) of the canonical seesaw models, which are natural extensions of the Standard Model (SM) to accommodate tiny but nonzero neutrino masses. Different from three right-handed neutrino singlets in the type-I seesaw model, the Higgs triplet in the type-II seesaw model participates directly in the electroweak gauge interactions, rendering the EFT construction more challenging. By integrating out the heavy Higgs triplet in the functional-integral formalism, we carry out a complete one-loop matching of the type-II seesaw model onto the so-called Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). It turns out that 41 dimension-six operators (barring flavor structures and Hermitian conjugates) in the Warsaw basis of the SMEFT can be obtained, covering all those 31 dimension-six operators in the case of type-I seesaw model. The Wilson coefficients for 41 dimension-six operators are computed up to mathcal{O}left({M}_{Delta }^{-2}right) with M∆ being the mass scale of the Higgs triplet. Moreover, the branching ratios of rare radiative decays of charged leptons {l}_{alpha}^{-}to {l}_{beta}^{-}+gamma are calculated in the EFT and compared with that in the full theory in order to demonstrate the practical application and the correctness of our EFT construction.

Ultracold Bose mixtures with spin-dependent fermion-mediated interactions

We develop a functional integral formulation for binary Bose-Einstein condensates coupled to polarized fermions. We find that spin-dependent fermion-mediated interactions have dramatic effects on the properties of the binary condensates. The quasiparticle spectrum features two branches. The upper branch, which is of density nature, gets modified by the induced interactions, while the lower branch, which is of spin nature, is left intact. The ground-state phase diagram consists of stable region of miscible phases and unstable region toward phase separation. In the stable region, it is further classified by the damping of excitations of the upper branch. We show that it is possible to find region of well-defined, long-lived quasiparticle excitations by tuning relevant parameters, such as boson-fermion mass ratio, boson-fermion number density ratio, and interspecies interactions between bosons as well. We explore the effects of quantum fluctuation due to the effective potential on the binary condensates. It turns out that both the density structure factor and spin density structure factor fulfill the Feynman relation, except that the latter is immune to the fermion-mediated interactions.

Symmetry and its breaking in a path-integral approach to quantum Brownian motion.

We study the Caldeira-Leggett model where a quantum Brownian particle interacts with an environment or a bath consisting of a collection of harmonic oscillators in the path-integral formalism. Compared to the contours that the paths take in the conventional Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, the paths in our study are deformed in the complex time plane as suggested by the recent study by C. Aron, G. Biroli, and L. F. Cugliandolo [SciPost Phys. 4, 008 (2018)10.21468/SciPostPhys.4.1.008]. This is done to investigate the connection between the symmetry properties in the Schwinger-Keldysh action and the equilibrium or nonequilibrium nature of the dynamics in an open quantum system. We derive the influence functional explicitly in this setting, which captures the effect of the coupling to the bath. We show that in equilibrium the action and the influence functional are invariant under a set of transformations of path-integral variables. The fluctuation-dissipation relation is obtained as a consequence of this symmetry. When the system is driven by an external time-dependent protocol, the symmetry is broken. From the terms that break the symmetry, we derive a quantum Jarzynski-like equality for a quantum mechanical worklike quantity given as a function of fluctuating quantum trajectory. In the classical limit, the transformations becomes those used in the functional integral formalism of the classical stochastic thermodynamics to derive the classical fluctuation theorem.

Dynamical symmetry breaking and negative cosmological constant

In the context of Clifford functional integral formalism, we revisit the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio-type dynamical symmetry breaking model and examine the properties of the dynamically generated composite bosons. Given that the model with 4-fermion interactions is nonrenormalizable in the traditional sense, the aim is to gain insight into the divergent integrals without resorting to explicit regularization. We impose a restriction on the linearly divergent primitive integrals, thus resolving the long-standing issue of momentum routing ambiguity associated with fermion–antifermion condensations. The removal of the ambiguity paves the way for the possible calculation of the true ratio of Higgs boson mass to top quark mass in the top condensation model. In this paper, we also investigate the negative vacuum energy resulted from dynamical symmetry breaking and its cosmological implications. In the framework of modified Einstein–Cartan gravity, it is demonstrated that the late-time acceleration is driven by a novel way of embedding the Hubble parameter into the Friedmann equation via an interpolation function, whereas the dynamically generated negative cosmological constant only plays a minor role for the current epoch. Two cosmic scenarios are proposed, with one of which suggesting that the universe may have been evolving from an everlasting coasting state towards the accelerating era characterized by the deceleration parameter approaching −0.5 at low redshift. One inevitable outcome of the modified Friedmannian cosmology is that the directly measured local Hubble parameter should in general be larger than the Hubble parameter calibrated from the conventional Friedmann equation. This Hubble tension becomes more pronounced when the Hubble parameter is comparable or less than a characteristic Hubble scale.

On Functional Formulation of the Statistical Theory of Homogeneous Turbulence and the Method of Skeleton Feynman Diagrams

The formalism of characteristic functional is applied for statistical description of a random velocity field obeyed the Navier-Stokes equations in the presence of regular and random external forces. The equation in functional derivatives for characteristic functional was obtained with the help a representation of characteristic functional in the form of functional integral over two fields From this equation one can get equations for various characteristics of velocity field such as the variance of velocity pulsations or for a mean response of the velocity field to external forcing (Green’s function). In the analyses of the solution structures it was used the method of skeleton Feynman diagrams followed directly from the functional formulation of the theory without referring to commonly used perturbation theory methods.

Magnetic Order in Heisenberg Models on Non-Bravais Lattice: Popov-Fedotov Functional Method

We study magnetic properties of ordered phase in Heisenberg model on a non-Bravais lattice by means of Popov - Fedotov trick, which takes into account a rigorous constraint of a single occupancy. We derive magnetization and free energy using sadle point approximation in the functional integral formalism. We illustrate the application of the Popov -- Fedotov approach to the Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice.

Generating Functions for Lattice Gauge Models with Scaled Fermions and Bosons

Recently, employing an imaginary-time functional integral formulation, we considered abelian and nonabelian $$(a{\mathbb {Z}})^d$$ lattice quantum field gauge theories with new a-dependent locally scaled Wilson Fermi and Bose fields in $$d\le 4$$ spacetime dimensions and neglecting the pure gauge interaction. The use of scaled fermions and bosons preserves Osterwalder–Schrader positivity and the spectral content of the models since the decay rates of correlations in the infinite-time limit are unchanged. In addition, scaled fields also result in a less singular, more regular behavior in the continuum limit. The scaled field gauge models are thermodynamically stable, which shows that stability does not depend on the presence of a pure gauge, plaquette term in the action. The finite lattice free energy is bounded with a bound independent of the number of points of the lattice and the lattice spacing $$a\in (0,1]$$ . Recall that the expansion of the fermionic exponential bond factor, arising from the interacting nearest neighbor hopping terms in the action, is finite by Pauli exclusion. The Bose-Gauge models we consider here have a finite truncation of the bond factor; the Fermi-mimicking truncated Bose models still obey Osterwalder–Schrader positivity. We show boundedness of the n-point scaled field generating functions and n-point scaled field correlations. The bounds are independent of the number of lattice points and the lattice spacing $$a\in (0,1]$$ . For the truncated Bose models, the bound is also independent of the location of the n points. No renormalization of the parameters is needed. The precise a-dependent factors have been extracted and isolated from the unscaled field partition functions and correlations so that the scaled field free energies and correlations are not singular for $$a\in (0,1]$$ .

Aspects of higher-abelian gauge theories at zero and finite temperature: Topological Casimir effect, duality and Polyakov loops

Higher-abelian gauge theories associated with Cheeger-Simons differential characters are studied on compact manifolds without boundary. The paper consists of two parts: First the functional integral formulation based on zeta function regularization is revisited and extended in order to provide a general framework for further applications. A field theoretical model - called extended higher-abelian Maxwell theory - is introduced, which is a higher-abelian version of Maxwell theory of electromagnetism extended by a particular topological action. This action is parametrized by two non-dynamical harmonic forms and generalizes the θ-term in usual gauge theories. In the second part the general framework is applied to study the topological Casimir effect in higher-abelian gauge theories at finite temperature at equilibrium. The extended higher-abelian Maxwell theory is discussed in detail and an exact expression for the free energy is derived. A non-trivial topology of the background space-time modifies the spectrum of both the zero-point fluctuations and the occupied states forming the thermal ensemble. The vacuum (Casimir) energy has two contributions: one related to the propagating modes and the second one related to the topologically inequivalent configurations of higher-abelian gauge fields. In the high temperature limit the leading term is of Stefan-Boltzmann type and the topological contributions are suppressed. With a particular choice of parameters extended higher-abelian Maxwell theories of different degrees are shown to be dual. On the n-dimensional torus we provide explicit expressions for the thermodynamic functions in the low- and high temperature regimes, respectively. Finally, the impact of the background topology on the two-point correlation function of a higher-abelian variant of the Polyakov loop operator is analyzed.

A Microscopic Model for Superconductivity in Ferromagnetic UGe2

The phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau model with two order parameters appears in many works of D.V. Shopova and D. I. Uzunov. Here, we develop a microscopic approach that, on the basis of mean-field theory and the functional integral formalism, establishes the two-component Ginzburg-Landau functional to show the correlation between the ferromagnetic and the triplet superconducting order parameters. The meanings of the constants encountered in the phenomenological theory are clarified.

Functional integral approach to the transfer function of a stochastic scattering channel

ABSTRACT We apply the formalism of functional integration to the calculation of the transfer function of a stochastic scattering channel formed by stationary, non-interacting point scatterers. The channel is described through a scattering amplitude density, defined over space, whose random component is characterized by a functional probability distribution. This random component induces in turn a probability distribution for the scattering transfer function, which we compute by means of functional integration in the case of Gaussian distributions. Some geometric configurations relevant to radar operation are worked out, as well as the statistical properties of the transfer function in the large-frequency limit. Extensions of the formulation in order to include scattering phase shifts, i.e. complex scattering amplitudes, and to consider non-Gaussian probability distributions are outlined.

Fluctuation damping of isolated, oscillating Bose-Einstein condensates

Experiments on the nonequilibrium dynamics of an isolated Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a magnetic double-well trap exhibit a puzzling divergence: While some show dissipation-free Josephson oscillations, others find strong damping. Such damping in isolated BECs cannot be understood on the level of the coherent Gross-Pitaevskii dynamics. Using the Keldysh functional-integral formalism, we describe the time-dependent system dynamics by means of a multi-mode BEC coupled to fluctuations (single-particle excitations) beyond the Gross-Pitaevskii saddle point. We find that the Josephson oscillations excite an excess of fluctuations when the effective Josephson frequency, $\tilde{\omega}_J$, is in resonance with the effective fluctuation energy, $\tilde{\varepsilon}_m$, where both, $\tilde{\omega}_J$ and $\tilde{\varepsilon}_m$, are strongly renormalized with respect to their noninteracting values. Evaluating and using the model parameters for the respective experiments describes quantitatively the presence or absence of damping.

Nonlocal statistical field theory of dipolar particles in electrolyte solutions

We present a nonlocal statistical field theory of a dilute electrolyte solution with a small additive of dipolar particles. We postulate that every dipolar particle is associated with an arbitrary probability distribution function (PDF) of distance between its charge centers. Using the standard Hubbard–Stratonovich transformation, we represent the configuration integral of the system in the functional integral form. We show that in the limit of a small permanent dipole moment, the functional in integrand exponent takes the well known form of the Poisson–Boltzmann–Langevin (PBL) functional. In the mean-field approximation we obtain a non-linear integro-differential equation with respect to the mean-field electrostatic potential, generalizing the PBL equation for the point-like dipoles obtained first by Abrashkin et al. We apply the obtained equation in its linearized form to derivation of the expressions for the mean-field electrostatic potential of the point-like test ion and its solvation free energy in salt-free solution, as well as in solution with salt ions. For the ‘Yukawa’-type PDF we obtain analytic relations for both the electrostatic potential and the solvation free energy of the point-like test ion. We obtain a general expression for the bulk electrostatic free energy of the solution within the Random phase approximation (RPA). For the salt-free solution of the dipolar particles for the Yukawa-type PDF we obtain an analytic relation for the electrostatic free energy, resulting in two limiting regimes. Finally, we analyze the limiting laws, following from the general relation for the electrostatic free energy of solution in presence of both the ions and the dipolar particles for the case of Yukawa-type PDF.

BRST-BV quantization of gauge theories with global symmetries

We consider the general gauge theory with a closed irreducible gauge algebra possessing the non-anomalous global (super)symmetry in the case when the gauge fixing procedure violates the global invariance of classical action. The theory is quantized in the framework of BRST-BV approach in the form of functional integral over all fields of the configuration space. It is shown that the global symmetry transformations are deformed in the process of quantization and the full quantum action is invariant under such deformed global transformations in the configuration space. The deformed global transformations are calculated in an explicit form in the one-loop approximation.

Searching for Supersolidity in Ultracold Atomic Bose Condensates with Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling.

We developed a functional integral formulation for the stripe phase of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The excitation spectrum is found to exhibit double gapless band structures, identified to be two Goldstone modes resulting from spontaneously broken internal gauge symmetry and translational invariance symmetry. The sound velocities display anisotropic behavior with the lower branch vanishing in the direction perpendicular to the stripe in the x-y plane. At the transition point between the plane-wave phase and the stripe phase, physical quantities such as fluctuation correction to the ground-state energy and quantum depletion of the condensates exhibit discontinuity, characteristic of the first-order phase transition. Despite strong quantum fluctuations induced by Rashba spin-orbit coupling, we show that the supersolid phase is stable against quantum depletion. Finally, we extend our formulation to finite temperatures to account for interactions between excitations.

Scaled lattice fermion fields, stability bounds, and regularity

We consider locally gauge-invariant lattice quantum field theory models with locally scaled Wilson-Fermi fields in d = 1, 2, 3, 4 spacetime dimensions. The use of scaled fermions preserves Osterwalder-Seiler positivity and the spectral content of the models (the decay rates of correlations are unchanged in the infinite lattice). In addition, it also results in less singular, more regular behavior in the continuum limit. Precisely, we treat general fermionic gauge and purely fermionic lattice models in an imaginary-time functional integral formulation. Starting with a hypercubic finite lattice Λ⊂(aZ)d, a ∈ (0, 1], and considering the partition function of non-Abelian and Abelian gauge models (the free fermion case is included) neglecting the pure gauge interactions, we obtain stability bounds uniformly in the lattice spacing a ∈ (0, 1]. These bounds imply, at least in the subsequential sense, the existence of the thermodynamic (Λ ↗ (aZ)d) and the continuum (a ↘ 0) limits. Specializing to the U(1) gauge group, the known non-intersecting loop expansion for the d = 2 partition function is extended to d = 3 and the thermodynamic limit of the free energy is shown to exist with a bound independent of a ∈ (0, 1]. In the case of scaled free Fermi fields (corresponding to a trivial gauge group with only the identity element), spectral representations are obtained for the partition function, free energy, and correlations. The thermodynamic and continuum limits of the free fermion free energy are shown to exist. The thermodynamic limit of n-point correlations also exist with bounds independent of the point locations and a ∈ (0, 1], and with no n! dependence. Also, a time-zero Hilbert-Fock space is constructed, as well as time-zero, spatially pointwise scaled fermion creation operators which are shown to be norm bounded uniformly in a ∈ (0, 1]. The use of our scaled fields since the beginning allows us to extract and isolate the singularities of the free energy when a ↘ 0.

Finite-range corrections to the thermodynamics of the one-dimensional Bose gas

The Lieb-Liniger equation of state accurately describes the zero-temperature universal properties of a dilute one-dimensional Bose gas in terms of the s-wave scattering length. For weakly-interacting bosons we derive non-universal corrections to this equation of state taking into account finite-range effects of the inter-atomic potential. Within the finite-temperature formalism of functional integration we find a beyond-mean-field equation of state which depends on scattering length and effective range of the interaction potential. Our analytical results, which are obtained performing dimensional regularization of divergent zero-point quantum fluctuations, show that for the one-dimensional Bose gas thermodynamic quantities like pressure and sound velocity are modified by changing the ratio between the effective range and the scattering length.