Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/iii/paper-304/1/solution

With Euclidean source convention , the generating functional is
Here is a nondynamical source. Its functional derivatives insert fields:
This is why “generates” correlation functions.
With the notation of the question, is the Euclidean connected generating functional; it is distinct from a Wilsonian effective action. Define the classical field
The quantum effective action is the Legendre transform
where is eliminated in favor of . Its first derivative is
so at zero source the quantum expectation value is a stationary point of . Moreover,
where is the exact connected correlation function. Thus the second derivative of is the inverse exact propagator.
Perturbatively, sums all Feynman diagrams, including disconnected ones. The exponential formula for combinatorial structures says that its logarithm selects connected Feynman diagrams, so sums connected diagrams with the sign dictated by the convention above. The Legendre transform removes diagrams that disconnect when one internal line is cut; consequently sums one-particle-irreducible Feynman diagrams. Equivalently, every connected diagram is a tree assembled from one-particle-irreducible vertices and full propagators, and the Legendre transform inverts that tree construction.
Now let . Then
Changing variables to and using invariance of both the action and functional measure gives , hence . In the Legendre transform, the pairing obeys
Changing the source variable and using the invariance of therefore gives
The symmetry of the classical action and measure is inherited by the full quantum effective action when it has no quantum anomaly.

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