For bounded operators with trace-class commutator, the multiplicative commutator differs from identity by a trace-class operator. Along , the trace of its logarithmic derivative is the constant . This follows by writing as the integral of conjugates of and using trace invariance under bounded similarities. Integrating the Fredholm determinant derivative from proves the formula. Individual traces of and need not exist.
For a real standard Gaussian random vector , a real symmetric matrix , and strictly positive,
Diagonalize and complete the square in each coordinate. Failure of strict positivity makes the positive exponential integral divergent. The same formula extends to a self-adjoint trace-class quadratic form of an isonormal Gaussian process, with square-summable linear coefficients and a Fredholm determinant. A linear-plus-quadratic Gaussian random field functional is reduced to this form by its covariance square root.
Give its natural trace-class topology: differentiability means , with remainder small in trace norm. The Fredholm determinant is the continuous extension of finite-rank determinants; it is multiplicative by finite-rank approximation and satisfies
near zero. For example its exterior-power series bounds the remainder by , proving that estimate directly.
Factor . Multiplicativity and the preceding expansion give
The determinant is nonzero for invertible , so division yields the required logarithmic derivative. Differentiability only in the bounded-operator norm would not justify this trace formula; the specified topology is essential.
The zero-mean fluctuation is , not the refractive index : . Also the full scattering potential has a nonzero mean and is not Gaussian:
The usual Gaussian closure requires to be a jointly Gaussian random field, not merely to have a Gaussian distribution at each point. We first give the intended leading weak-fluctuation result with the linearized potential , then account for the quadratic term.
Keep the definitions from the preceding solution and let . Because the incident field has unit modulus,
The exponent is a real Gaussian linear functional . If , the linearized potential has autocorrelation function of a random field . Complete the square in the one-dimensional Gaussian density of : . Here its mean is zero, so
This is Gaussian intensity in the first Rytov approximation. In a more explicit complex notation, put
Then
The second term is the pseudo-covariance of a complex random variable contribution. It does not vanish for an arbitrary finite real medium. The real-kernel expression shows that the combined exponent is nonnegative, even though its two complex-form contributions need not be separately nonnegative.
For the full potential, Gaussian moment pairing theorem gives its centered covariance function
Its uncentered autocorrelation is . The first Rytov approximation is linear in , but its intensity is an exponential average; applying a Gaussian formula exactly to this quadratic potential would be incorrect. A consistent expansion through order is
The first term is the coherent mean-potential correction. Odd powers vanish by the symmetry of the joint Gaussian field. The variance term can equally use through this order. Thus the mean shift must not be discarded while retaining the order- fluctuation intensity.
An exact expression within the far-field, first-Rytov approximation model is also available when the full is retained. Assume the restriction of to is a Gaussian element of the real Hilbert space , with covariance operator of kernel . Let denote multiplication by , , and . The Gaussian quadratic exponential moment is
Here the determinant is the Fredholm determinant; require strictly positive for finiteness. Diagonalize the self-adjoint trace-class operator and complete the square in each Gaussian coordinate to derive the formula. On a bounded , unit pointwise variance makes , so the covariance is trace class under the stated measurable hypothesis. Small enough satisfies the positivity condition. Expanding the determinant and inverse recovers the preceding mean and covariance terms. For small this is also determined by the potential autocorrelation: since ,
using the branch near zero. This makes explicit the extra joint-Gaussian assumption behind an exact correlation-based answer.
Finally, Gaussian marginals alone are insufficient. Take and independent random signs . The stationary sequence has Gaussian marginals and covariance , just like independent standard Gaussian variables. However , whereas for the independent Gaussian pair it is . The different intensities show why the joint hypothesis is needed. The mean-zero hint is interpreted for , and the linearized Gaussian formula is not claimed to be exact for .