Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/3/a/solution

Use . Taking the trace of the imaginary-time time-evolution operator identifies the initial and final position, giving the path integral
The measure includes integration over the common endpoint. The paths are real periodic bosonic paths on the imaginary-time circle, not paths with fixed zero endpoints and not only classical trajectories. The kinetic measure is defined by time slicing; typical contributing paths need not be differentiable. For the free expansion assume . The interacting partition function requires a potential bounded below; otherwise the following formulas have the meaning of a formal perturbation series about the free harmonic oscillator.

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