Uniform-source vacuum functional and spacetime volume
ID: uniform-source-vacuum-functional-and-spacetime-volume
A translation-invariant connected generating functional with a constant external source is extensive in spacetime volume . Its total logarithm is dimensionless, while its density has mass dimension . Consequently its dimensionless representation at fixed physical volume must retain . For a free massive scalar with source coupling , completing the square gives . This already disproves a literal rewriting of the full uniform-source logarithm using only at fixed volume. In infinite volume the total functional is generally infinite; use the density, a source of compact support, or an explicit volume regulator. After writing the density as , its renormalization group equation has the engineering term . Ultraviolet subtraction alone does not establish infrared finiteness for a massless constant source.
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