2021/02/09 by BenTov, Yoni
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2102.05029
I review the generating function for quantum-statistical mechanics, known as the Feynman-Vernon influence functional, the decoherence functional, or the Schwinger-Keldysh path integral. I describe a probability-conserving iε prescription from a path-integral implementation of Lindblad evolution. I also explain how to generalize the formalism to accommodate out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs), leading to a Larkin-Ovchinnikov path integral. My goal is to provide step-by-step calculations of path integrals associated to the harmonic oscillator.