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Questions tagged [wick-rotation]

Wick rotation substitutes an imaginary-number variable for a real-number time variable to map an expression or a problem in Minkowski space to one in Euclidean space which are easier to evaluate or solve. Use for all types of rigid analytic continuation maps.

3 votes
3 answers
608 views

Path integral at large time

From the path integral of a QFT: $$Z=\int D\phi e^{-S[\phi]}$$ What is a nice argument to say that when we study the theory at large time $T$, this behaves as: $$ Z \to e^{-TE_0} $$ where $E_0$ is the ...
BVquantization's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
34 views

"Mass Shell" Condition on Euclidean Scalar Field

This is a basic qft question. I am looking for the condition on a free scalar $\phi$ of mass $m$ in Euclidean space such that it satisfies the Klein-Gordon equation. The Euclidean space Klein-Gordon ...
Sam's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
0 answers
74 views

Motivation behind reflection positivity

I have taken a look at this physicsSE question, Wikipedia, and this paper by Jaffe which go over reflection positivity. While they all nicely explain the definition behind reflection positivity and ...
CBBAM's user avatar
  • 3,350
7 votes
1 answer
187 views

When is a Schrodinger equation equivalent to a Fokker-Planck equation?

In chap. 3 in these notes on kinetic theory, Tong shows that the Fokker-Planck operator for a particle undergoing overdamped Langevin dynamics in a potential $V$ is equivalent to a Schrodinger ...
Panopticon's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
44 views

Wick rotation of Electromagnetic Field Lagrangian [duplicate]

So i will directly to the problem. I am not getting how, when we Wick rotate, the EM action should go to (the correct answer) $$ S_E = \int -d^4 x\frac{1}{4} F_{\mu \nu} F^{\mu \nu} \underbrace{\...
LSS's user avatar
  • 980
1 vote
0 answers
146 views

How is Wick rotation an analytic continuation?

Wick rotation is formally described by the transformation $$t \mapsto it.$$ In many place it is stated more rigorously as an analytic continuation into imaginary time. I understand why we do it but ...
CBBAM's user avatar
  • 3,350
3 votes
1 answer
143 views

Is the Godel universe Wick rotatable?

Take Wick Rotatability being as the way defined in the article by Helleland: Wick rotations and real GIT Is the Gödel universe Wick rotatable according to this definition?
Bastam Tajik's user avatar
  • 1,268
2 votes
1 answer
176 views

Examples of Path integral $\neq$ Partition function?

Are there any systems we know of whose partition function is not simply Wick rotation of the path integral? Does anyone know of any examples?
Dr. user44690's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
92 views

How do I show that Thermal Field Theory works?

Of course it does work. What I'm asking is: What is the easiest-to-understand, most direct example that shows that Thermal Field Theory is a predictive theory that actually describes how temperature ...
Mauro Giliberti's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
71 views

Wick rotation of CFT three-point function

Let $\langle O_1\cdots O_n\rangle$ be a Euclidean CFT$_d$ correlation function. I know that we can analytically continue to Lorentzian signature as follows. Let $x_i = (\tau_i,\mathbf{x}_i)\in\mathbb{...
Gold's user avatar
  • 36.4k
10 votes
1 answer
225 views

Wick Rotation vs Sokhotski-Plemeli Method to compute internal loop of Feynman correlators

When computing loop integrals in QFT, one often encounters integrals of the form $$\int_{-\infty}^\infty\frac{dp^4}{(2\pi)^4}\frac{-i}{p^2+m^2-i\epsilon},$$ where we are in Minkowski space with metric ...
Sean's user avatar
  • 101
2 votes
0 answers
56 views

Confusion about choosing an Euclidean world sheet metric in String Theory path integral

When it comes to construct a well-defined path integral for the Polyakov action in Bosonic String Theory, most authors assume that the world sheet metric $g$ is Riemannian (i.e. it has Euclidean ...
Генивалдо's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
61 views

Visualizing CTC - is it related to a "periodic wick rotation"?

As far as I understand Wick rotation, it means the mathematical transformation $$ ct → jct $$ Where $j$ is imaginary unit. While reading on CTC (closed timelike curves) in the Gödel metric I came ...
Awe Kumar Jha's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
106 views

How can we use saddle point approximation for a bounce solution which is not even a strict local minimum of the Euclidean action?

In calculating the false vacuum decay, the main contribution to the imaginary energy part of the Euclidean path integral comes from the bounce solution. And we somehow apply saddle point approximation ...
Bababeluma's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
168 views

Justification for Wick rotation for topological insulator

In Appendix B of the paper (1), the authors compute the second Chern number $C_2$ of a band structure by manipulating the ground- and excited-state projection operators $P_{\text{G}}(\mathbf{k})$ and $...
xzd209's user avatar
  • 2,157

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