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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Equations of Motion and Noether's Theorem in the Functional Formalism

First, let us recall the derivation of the equations of motion and Noether's theorem in classical field theory. We have some action functional S[ϕ] defined by some local Lagrangian:
S[ϕ]=L(ϕ,ϕ)dx.
The classical equations of motion are just the Euler-Lagrange equations
δSδϕ(x)=0μ(L(μϕ))=Lϕ

Now suppose that S is invariant under some transformation ϕ(x)ϕ(x)+ϵ(x)η(x), so that S[ϕ]=S[ϕ+ϵη]. Here we treat η as a fixed function but ϵ may be an arbitrary infinitesimal function. The Lagrangian is not necessarily invariant, but rather can transform with a total derivative:
L(ϕ+ϵη)=L(ϕ)+L(μϕ)ημϵ+ϵμfμ
For some unknown vector field fμ (which we could compute given any particular Lagrangian). So let's compute
δϵS=δϵL =L(μϕ)ημϵ+ϵμfμ =μ(fμL(μϕ)η)ϵ
Let us define the Noether current Jμ by
Jμ=L(μϕ)ηfμ.
Then the previous computation showed that
δSδϵ=μJμ.
If ϕ is a solution to the Euler-Lagrange equations, then the variation dS vanishes, hence we obtain:

Theorem (Noether's theorem) The Noether current is divergence free, i.e.
μJμ=0.

Functional Version


First, we derive the functional analogue of the classical equations of motion. Consider an expectation value
O(ϕ)=O(ϕ)eiSDϕ
We'll assume that ϕ takes values in a vector space (or bundle). Then we can perform a change of variables ψ=ϕ+ϵ, and since Dϕ=Dψ we find that
O(ϕ+ϵ)exp(iS[ϕ])Dϕ
is independent of ϵ. Expanding to first order in ϵ, we have
0=(δOδϕ+iOδSδϕ)exp(iS)Dϕ
So we find the quantum analogue of the equations of motion:
δOδϕ+iOδSδϕ=0

Next, we move on to the quantum version of Noether's theorem. Suppose there is a transformation Q of the fields leaving the action invariant. Assuming the path integral measure is invariant, we obtain
QF+iFQS=0
To compare with the classical result, consider Q to be the (singular) operator
Q=δδϵ(x)
Then by the previous calculations,
QS=δμJμ,
so we obtain
δOδϵ(x)=iOμJμ.
This is the Ward-Takahashi identity, the quantum analogue of Noether's theorem.

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