I am not familiar with functional integral, and in the text like $$\int D\phi D\pi \exp [i\int^T_od^4x(\pi\dot{\phi}-\frac{1}{2}\pi^2-\frac{1}{2}(\nabla \phi)^2-V(\phi))].\tag{9.14}$$ I try to compile it but get: $$\int D\phi\left[ \prod_{x,t}\int d\pi\ \exp [i\epsilon^4(\pi\dot{\phi}-\frac{1}{2}\pi^2)] \right] \exp([i\int^T_od^4x(-\frac{1}{2}(\nabla \phi)^2-V(\phi))]$$ $$=\int D\phi \left[\prod_{x,t}\sqrt{\frac{2\pi}{i\epsilon^4}} \exp [i\epsilon^4\frac{\dot{\phi}^2}{2}] \right] \exp([i\int^T_od^4x(-\frac{1}{2}(\nabla \phi)^2-V(\phi))]$$ $$=\int D\phi \left[\prod_{x,t}\sqrt{\frac{2\pi}{i\epsilon^4}}\right] \exp[i\int^T_od^4x(\frac{1}{2}\dot{\phi}^2-\frac{1}{2}(\nabla \phi)^2-V(\phi))].$$ I know things were terrible wrong, but what is it?
1 Answer
OP's infinitely many Gaussian integrations of the momentum field are essentially the correct method. The infinite product in OP's last line is usually tucked away by normalizing the path integral appropriately.
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