Landau approximation ($F_{\mathrm{L}}[h]=H[m_h,h]$)

The Landau approximation evaluates a statistical field's partition function at a stable stationary configuration, omitting fluctuation-loop corrections to the free energy. Functional differentiation of that stationary value still gives a connected linear response: the inverse of the saddle's quadratic fluctuation operator. Freezing fields before differentiating would lose this response. A Gaussian field theory, in contrast, permits exact integration of its quadratic fluctuations.