Path-integral approach to the Wigner-Kirkwood expansion

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Jan;89(1):012135. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.89.012135. Epub 2014 Jan 23.

Abstract

We study the high-temperature behavior of quantum-mechanical path integrals. Starting from the Feynman-Kac formula, we derive a functional representation of the Wigner-Kirkwood perturbation expansion for quantum Boltzmann densities. As shown by its applications to different potentials, the presented expansion turns out to be quite efficient in generating analytic form of the higher-order expansion coefficients. To put some flesh on the bare bones, we apply the expansion to obtain basic thermodynamic functions of the one-dimensional anharmonic oscillator. Further salient issues, such as generalization to the Bloch density matrix and comparison with the more customary world-line formulation, are discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't