Related papers: Is the Euclidean path integral always equal to the…
Gibbons and Hawking proposed that the Euclidean gravity path integral with periodic boundary conditions in time computes the thermal partition sum of gravity. As a corollary, they argued that a derivative of the associated free energy with…
The path-integral quantization of thermal scalar, vector and spinor fields is performed newly in the coherent-state representation. In doing this, we choose the thermal electrodynamics and $\phi ^4$ theory as examples. By this quantization,…
We discuss new bounce-like (but non-time-reversal-invariant-) solutions to Euclidean equations of motion, which we dub boomerons. In the Euclidean path integral approach to quantum theories, boomerons make an imaginary contribution to the…
We consider the energetics and thermodynamics of spacetimes with no horizons, but endowed with a preferred timelike junction surface. They could arise as a limiting case of the gravastar and other constructions regularizing the interior of…
We consider Euclidean path integrals with higher derivative actions, including those that depend quadratically on acceleration, velocity and position. Such path integrals arise naturally in the study of stiff polymers, membranes with…
We revisit string theoretic derivations of black hole entropy and argue that their enabling structures do not persist in realistic cosmologies. We formalize this as the Thermodynamic Split Conjecture (TSC) which is the statement that in any…
In the Euclidean path integral approach, we calculate the actions and the entropies for the Reissner-Nordstr\"om-de Sitter solutions. When the temperatures of black hole and cosmological horizons are equal, the entropy is the sum of…
These lectures are intended as an introduction to the technique of path integrals and their applications in physics. The audience is mainly first-year graduate students, and it is assumed that the reader has a good foundation in quantum…
We propose a phase-space path integral formulation of noncommutative quantum mechanics, and prove its equivalence to the operatorial formulation. As an illustration, the partition function of a noncommutative two-dimensional harmonic…
We formulate a new quantum equivalence principle by which a path integral for a particle in a general metric-affine space is obtained from that in a flat space by a non-holonomic coordinate transformation. The new path integral is free of…
The propagator of a spinless particle is calculated from the quantum mechanical path integral formalism in static curved spacetimes endowed with event-horizons. A toy model, the Gui spacetime, and the 2D and 4D Schwarzschild black holes are…
The boundary conditions corresponding to the Matsubara formalism for the $T > 0$ partition function may be introduced as {\em constraints} in the path integral for the vacuum amplitude. We implement those constraints with time-independent…
We investigate the charged Vaidya spacetime with conformal symmetry by classifying the horizons and finding its connection to Hawking temperature. We find a conformal Killing vector whose existence requires the mass and electric charge…
Introducing a perturbative definition, phase space path integrals can be calculated without slicing. This leads to a short-time expansion of the quantum-mechanical path amplitude, or a high-temperature expansion of the unnormalized density…
The path-integral calculation for the free energy of a spin-1/2 Dirac-fermion gas is performed in spherical polar coordinates for a flat spacetime geometry. Its equivalence with the Cartesian-coordinate representation is explicitly…
A natural mapping of paths in a curved space onto the paths in the corresponding (tangent) flat space may be used to reduce the curved-space-time path integral to the flat-space-time path integral. The dynamics of the particle in a curved…
The partition function in Matrix theory is constructed by Euclidean path integral method. The D0-branes, which move around in the finite region with a typical size of Schwarzschild radius, are chosen as the background. The mass and entropy…
For distinguishable particles it is well known that Brownian motion and a Feynman-Kac functional can be used to calculate the path integral (for imaginary times) for a general class of scalar potentials. In order to treat identical…
The purpose of this note is to establish the basic properties--- regularity at the horizon, time independence, and thermality--- of the generalized Hartle-Hawking vacua defined in static spacetimes with bifurcate Killing horizon admitting a…
The semiclassical Euclidean path integral method is applied to compute the low temperature quantum decay rate for a particle placed in the metastable minimum of a cubic potential in a {\it finite} time theory. The classical path, which…