Colored Gaussian paraxial mean propagator ($m(x)=⟨U_W(x,0)⟩E_0$)

For $E_x=i{\Delta }_{\perp }E/(2k)+ik\mu WE$, a jointly Gaussian colored medium has covariance $C(s,\mathbf{r})$. Averaging the equation gives a term $⟨WE⟩$; the Furutsu–Novikov formula expresses it through the random propagator and the functional derivative of $E$. It does not generally close in the mean field alone. A phase-screen product followed by Gaussian averaging gives a formal exact mean propagator, with factor $\exp [-k^2{\mu }^2\Delta x^2{\sum }_{j,l}C(x_j-x_l,{\mathbf{r}}_j-{\mathbf{r}}_l)/2]$ for each transverse path. In the longitudinal white-noise limit the covariance collapses to equal slices, and the mean closes as $m_x=i{\Delta }_{\perp }m/(2k)-k^2{\mu }^{2}A(0)m/2$.