Abstract

Functional integrals provide a powerful and useful formalism for deriving both perturbative and nonperturbative results in quantum theory. Here we consider their application to the problem of formulating the dynamics of coherent and squeezed states. We derive the functional integral representation of the coherent state density matrix by combining the closed time path representation of the density matrix in terms of functional integrals in configuration space with the projection of coherent states onto configuration space states. In this formalism the atomic variables can, without loss of generality, be integrated out exactly yielding a single functional integral which describes the combined quantum dynamics of both the atomic and the coherent states.

© 1989 Optical Society of America