The Matsubara-Fradkin Thermodynamical Quantization of Podolsky Electrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper applies the Matsubara-Fradkin formalism and Nakanishi's auxiliary field method to quantize Podolsky electrodynamics at finite temperature, deriving key equations and identities for the theory.

Contribution

It introduces a consistent path integral formulation for Podolsky electrodynamics in thermodynamic equilibrium and derives fundamental equations and identities.

Findings

Path integral representation for the partition function derived

Dyson-Schwinger-Fradkin equations obtained

Ward-Fradkin-Takahashi identities established

Abstract

In this work we apply the Matsubara-Fradkin formalism and the Nakanishi's auxiliary field method to the quantization of the Podolsky electrodynamics in thermodynamic equilibrium. This approach allows us to write consistently the path integral representation for the partition function of gauge theories in a simple manner. Furthermore, we find the Dyson-Schwinger-Fradkin equations and the Ward-Fradkin-Takahashi identities for the Podolsky theory. We also write the most general form for the polarization tensor in thermodynamic equilibrium.