Phys. Rev. D 35, 2009–2012 (1987)What is the effective potential?Received 4 August 1986; published in the issue dated 15 March 1987 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. © 1987 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.35.2009
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.35.2009
PACS:
11.30.Qc, 11.10.Ef
|
|
About | Terms and Conditions | Subscriptions | Search | Help
Use of the American Physical Society websites and journals implies that the user has read and agrees to our Terms and Conditions and any applicable Subscription Agreement. Physical Review®, Physical Review Letters®, Reviews of Modern Physics®, and Physical Review Special Topics® are trademarks of the American Physical Society.