What is the effective potential?

Seiji Norimatsu, Kunio Yamamoto, and Azuma Tanaka
Phys. Rev. D 35, 2009 – Published 15 March 1987
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Abstract

There is some confusion about what the effective potential is. To remove this confusion, boundary conditions in the path-integral formulation are discussed. For a system with several phases, there are several kinds of physically acceptable boundary conditions. The choice of condition determines the phase. Therefore without specifying the phase we cannot discuss the generating functionals. By taking this fact into account, the meanings of the effective potential and its convex property are clarified. The confusion is removed and the consistent interpretation is obtained.

  • Received 4 August 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.35.2009

©1987 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Seiji Norimatsu and Kunio Yamamoto

  • Institute of Physics, College of General Education, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560, Japan

Azuma Tanaka

  • Faculty of General Education, Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka 535, Japan

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Issue

Vol. 35, Iss. 6 — 15 March 1987

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