It is useful to regulate the number of modes first, so the functional integral identities reduce to ordinary integration by parts. Let be the Gaussian covariance, , and put a dot for . The matrix identity gives
The second field derivative of the Gaussian is
Hence, after two integrations by parts,
The imposed flow makes the bracket vanish. The remaining trace is independent of the fields and only changes the Gaussian normalization. Since the free Gaussian normalization is , . Therefore
Equivalently, is cutoff independent after discarding the stated overall rescaling. This is the Gaussian covariance differentiation identity behind the Polchinski equation.
With the Fourier convention above and functional derivatives satisfying , contraction with becomes . Thus the numerator in the printed flow is consistent with this derivative convention; it must not be changed independently of the convention.