Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-condensed-matter-field-theory-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-1/2/c/solution

For unnormalized coherent states, , and . Insert this identity between short imaginary-time evolutions. The overlaps generate , while the normal-ordered symbol of gives
Here runs from zero to ; the exponent is dimensionless. The bosonic trace makes the complex fields periodic, not antiperiodic.
The printed expression omits the explicit vacuum factor. It represents the full oscillator only if a symmetric/Weyl determinant prescription implicitly includes that factor. With the ordinary normal-ordered time-sliced coherent-state measure, it instead represents . The continuum formula alone does not specify the energy-zero convention.

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