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Starting from the earlier notions of stationary action principles, these tutorial notes shows how Schwinger's Quantum Action Principle descended from Dirac's formulation, which independently led Feynman to his path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics. Part I brings out in more detail the connection between the two formulations, and applications are discussed. Then, the Keldysh-Schwinger time-cycle method of extracting matrix elements is described. Part II will discuss the variational formulation of quantum electrodynamics and the development of source theory.
List of contents
Historical introduction.- Review of classical action principles.- Classical field theory - electrodynamics.- Quantum Action Principle.- Time-cycle or Schwinger-keldysh Formulation.- Relativistic Theory of Fields.- Nonrelativistic Source theory.- Concluding remarks.
About the author
Professor Kimball Milton is the George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Physics at the University of Oklahoma. Kim Milton, a student of Julian Schwinger, studies in particular vacuum energy phenomena (the Casimir effect) in contexts ranging from cosmological through hadronic to condensed matter systems. He is the author, together with J Mehra of "Climbing the Mountain: The Scientific Biography of Julian Schwinger" Oxford University Press, 2000.
Summary
Starting from the earlier notions of stationary action principles, these tutorial notes shows how Schwinger’s Quantum Action Principle descended from Dirac’s formulation, which independently led Feynman to his path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics. Part I brings out in more detail the connection between the two formulations, and applications are discussed. Then, the Keldysh-Schwinger time-cycle method of extracting matrix elements is described. Part II will discuss the variational formulation of quantum electrodynamics and the development of source theory.
Additional text
“The main goal of this short book is to examine quantum action principles and, in particular, the Schwinger action principle. … For anyone who is interested in a good but brief introduction to the subject, this monograph should be considered.” (Paul F. Bracken, Mathematical Reviews, April, 2016)
Report
"The main goal of this short book is to examine quantum action principles and, in particular, the Schwinger action principle. ... For anyone who is interested in a good but brief introduction to the subject, this monograph should be considered." (Paul F. Bracken, Mathematical Reviews, April, 2016)
