Breakdown of the Coherent State Path Integral: Two Simple Examples

Justin H. Wilson and Victor Galitski
Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 110401 – Published 16 March 2011

Abstract

We show how the time-continuous coherent state path integral breaks down for both the single-site Bose-Hubbard model and the spin-path integral. Specifically, when the Hamiltonian is quadratic in a generator of the algebra used to construct coherent states, the path integral fails to produce correct results following from an operator approach. As suggested by previous authors, we note that the problems do not arise in the time-discretized version of the path integral.

  • Received 16 December 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.110401

© 2011 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Justin H. Wilson and Victor Galitski

  • Joint Quantum Institute and Condensed Matter Theory Center, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA

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Issue

Vol. 106, Iss. 11 — 18 March 2011

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