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What is the physical meaning of the normalization of the propagator in quantum mechanics?
Suppose we have a quantum field theory (QFT) for a scalar field $\phi$ with vacuum state $|\Omega\rangle$. Then, in units where $\hbar = 1$, we postulate that the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of any ...
4votes
1answer
556views
Free space propagator: reconciling two results
In quantum mechanics, the free space propagator $G(q_f=0,q_i=0;\tau)$ can be easily calculated to be $$\sqrt{\frac{m}{2\pi i \hbar \tau}}$$ by inserting an identity operator. However if we use ...
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18votes
1answer
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Normalizing Propagators (Path Integrals)
In the context of quantum mechanics via path integrals the normalization of the propagator as $$\left | \int d x K(x,t;x_0,t_0) \right |^2 ~=~ 1\tag{1}$$ is incorrect. But why? It gives the correct ...
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