Normal and Weyl symbols of a harmonic oscillator

ID: normal-and-weyl-symbols-of-a-harmonic-oscillator

For the quantum harmonic oscillator , its normal symbol is . The Weyl ordering symbol of is , so . Switching from adjacent-label coherent-state time slicing to a midpoint phase-space path integral must retain this ordering correction. Both correctly normalized constructions give the thermal partition function of a quantum harmonic oscillator ; retaining the normal-symbol constant after switching prescriptions would count the zero-point shift twice.

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