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The important role of functional integrals in modern physics

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Abstract

The 20th century has witnessed the emergence of the physics of fluctuating systems both statistical and quantum. This to some extent explains the important role played by functional integrals in modern physics. We describe a few striking examples of physics problems where using path and, more generally, field integrals has proved decisive.

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  1. Centre de Saclay, CEA-IRFU and Institut de Physique Théorique, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    J. Zinn-Justin

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Correspondence to J. Zinn-Justin.

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Prepared from an English manuscript submitted by the author; for the Russian version, see Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 169, No. 1, pp. 20–31, October, 2011.

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Zinn-Justin, J. The important role of functional integrals in modern physics. Theor Math Phys 169, 1380–1389 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11232-011-0114-y

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