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Time discretization of functional integrals
journal contribution
posted on 2013-01-31, 14:50 authored by John SamsonNumerical evaluation of functional integrals usually involves a finite (Lslice)
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 ˆρL(β) = [ˆρ1(β/L)]L, if the density matrix ˆρ1(β) in
the static approximation is known. We investigate the convergence of the partition
function ZL(β) ≡ Tr ˆρL(β), the internal energy and the density of states gL(E) (the
inverse Laplace transform of ZL), as L → ∞. For the simple harmonic oscillator,
gL(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, ZL is an even function of the coupling
constant for L < 3: ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic coupling can be distinguished
only for L ≥ 3, where a Berry phase appears in the functional integral. At any non-zero
temperature, the exact partition function is recovered as L→∞.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Physics
Citation
SAMSON, J.H., 2000. Time discretization of functional integrals. Journal of Physics A - Matehmatical and General, 33 (16), pp.3111-3120.Publisher
© IOP PublishingVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2000ISSN
0305-4470Publisher version
Language
- en