Disentangling the Imaginary-Time Formalism at Finite Temperature
Abstract
Description
We rewrite the imaginary-time formalism of finite temperature field theory in a form that all graphs used in calculating physical processes do not have any loops. Any production of a particle from a heat bath which is itself not thermalized or the decay and absorption of a similar particle in the bath is expressed entirely in terms of the sum of particle interaction processes. These are themselves very general in meaning. They can be straight forward interactions or the more subtle and less well-known purely interference processes that do not have a counter part in the vacuum.
14 pages revtex style, 20 embedded EPS figures, added discussion of the connection with the real-time formalism + references
14 pages revtex style, 20 embedded EPS figures, added discussion of the connection with the real-time formalism + references