Feynman propagator

The Feynman propagator is the time-ordered Green function selected by the $iϵ$ prescription.

With ${\Delta }_F=⟨0|T\{\varphi (x)\varphi (y)\}|0⟩$, for a mode of positive energy $E>0$ the Feynman i-epsilon prescription puts poles $+E-i0$ and $-E+i0$ in opposite half-planes. The energy contour integral closes clockwise below for positive time separation and counterclockwise above for negative separation. The residue theorem gives $e^{-iE|t|}/(2E)$ in either case. Thus the four-dimensional Fourier integral has numerator $i$ and denominator $p^2-m^2+i0$. The integral is understood as a distribution limit, not an ordinary absolutely convergent integral; changing the definition to $i{\Delta }_F$ would change the displayed normalization.

At fixed spatial momentum with mode energy $E>0$, $g_E(t)=e^{-iE|t|}/(2E)$ is continuous, with derivatives $-i/2$ and $+i/2$ at zero from opposite sides. Hence its second distributional derivative has a $-i\delta (t)$ term, while away from zero $g_E^{\prime \prime }+E^2{g}_E=0$. Therefore $({\partial }_t^2+E^2)g_E=-i\delta (t)$ and, after the spatial Fourier transform, $(\square +m^2){\Delta }_F=-i{\delta }^4$. This checks the propagator numerator, contour signs and equal-time canonical commutation relations independently of residue calculation.

The Feynman $iϵ$ prescription displaces poles or tilts an integration contour by an infinitesimal imaginary part. It selects vacuum boundary conditions and damps oscillatory integrals at infinite time.