 Quantum propagator

The position-space kernel of the time-evolution operator propagates a wave function by $\psi (x,t)=\int K_U(x,t;x^{\prime },t^{\prime })\psi (x^{\prime },t^{\prime })d{x}^{\prime }$. It tends to $\delta (x-x^{\prime })$ as $t\to t^{\prime }$. A retarded convention multiplies it by the Heaviside step function: $K_R=\Theta (t-t^{\prime })K_U$. This convention obeys $(i\hslash {\partial }_t-H)K_R=i\hslash \delta (t-t^{\prime })\delta (x-x^{\prime })$; dividing by $i\hslash$ gives the Green function with a unit delta source. The time phase for an energy eigenstate is always $e^{-iE(t-t^{\prime })/\hslash }$.