Fix the orientation of the Berezin integral by defining its measure as the linear functional that extracts the coefficient of ; all monomials of lower degree integrate to zero. In particular . This specifies the sign convention in the notation .
The Grassmann change-of-variables formula gives
For a unitary matrix, , so the combined measure is invariant. Diagonalize the Hermitian matrix by a unitary change of variables. If its eigenvalues are , the integrand factors as . Extracting its top coefficient proves the Grassmann Gaussian integral
The determinant identity also holds without Hermiticity by direct expansion; Hermiticity makes the diagonalization proof immediate.
Let . Integrating out the Grassmann variables first gives the exact polynomial expression
The requested factorization requires to be invertible, an assumption omitted from the question. Under it, use the formal perturbative matrix logarithm near :
Consequently
Expanding gives exactly the displayed coefficients , and hence . The logarithmic representation is a formal series, not a globally convergent logarithm for every : the determinant can have zeros. The original determinant integral remains well-defined for singular , but and the requested normalized expansion then cannot be formed.
There is a second convention to specify. The are real, so a complex Hermitian gives , where is real symmetric positive definite. Its Gaussian covariance matrix is . It equals only if is real symmetric. Thus
The effective Feynman rules are: a bosonic contraction joins indices with ; an -leg vertex carries ; sum all closed vacuum diagrams with their symmetry factors, including disconnected diagrams. The symmetrization is necessary because the commute: the trace tensor is cyclically invariant but need not be fully symmetric. The minus sign comes from expanding . Taking the logarithm of the normalized integral instead keeps only connected vacuum diagrams.
Equivalently, retain the fermions: an oriented contraction is , the mixed vertex has weight , and every closed fermion loop gives a minus sign. The same bosonic covariance joins its legs. Expanding these contractions recovers the trace vertices above. This is bosonic trace vertices from a finite fermionic determinant.