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In Schwinger's approach, the action principle is targeted towards quantum mechanics. The action becomes a quantum action, i.e. an operator, . Although it is superficially different from the path integral formulation where the action is a classical function, the modern formulation of the two formalisms are identical. [4]
Schwinger's foundational work on quantum field theory constructed the modern framework of field correlation functions and their equations of motion. His approach started with a quantum action and allowed bosons and fermions to be treated equally for the first time, using a differential form of Grassman integration.
This is the starting point of Schwinger’s treatment of the theory of quantum angular momentum, predicated on the action of these operators on Fock states built of arbitrary higher powers of such operators. For instance, acting on an (unnormalized) Fock eigenstate,
Both Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger developed quantum action principles based on early work by Paul Dirac. Feynman's integral method was not a variational principle but reduces to the classical least action principle; it led to his Feynman diagrams. Schwinger's differential approach relates infinitesimal amplitude changes to infinitesimal ...
Therefore, the source appears in the vacuum amplitude acting from both sides on the Green's function correlator of the theory. [1] Schwinger's source theory stems from Schwinger's quantum action principle and can be related to the path integral formulation as the variation with respect to the source per se corresponds to the field , i.e. [6]
For example, in a collision between electrons and molecules, there may be tens or hundreds of particles involved. But the phenomenon may be reduced to a two-body problem by describing all the molecule constituent particle potentials together with a pseudopotential. [5] In these cases, the Lippmann–Schwinger equations may be used.
The action corresponding to the various paths is used to calculate the path integral, which gives the probability amplitudes of the various outcomes. Although equivalent in classical mechanics with Newton's laws, the action principle is better suited for generalizations and plays an important role in modern physics. Indeed, this principle is ...
It is also referred to as the Sauter–Schwinger effect, Schwinger mechanism, or Schwinger pair production. It is a prediction of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in which electron – positron pairs are spontaneously created in the presence of an electric field, thereby causing the decay of the electric field.