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I am attending an advanced QFT course, and trying to verify the instructor's claim that the retarded Green's function

$$ G_{\text{ret}}^{(4D)}(t,\mathbf{x}) = \theta(t) \left[ \frac{1}{2\pi}\delta(\tau^2) - \theta(\tau^2) \frac{m}{4\pi\tau} J_1(m\tau) \right] \\ (\tau^2 = -t^2+\mathbf{x}^2, \text{ mostly positive signature}) $$

associated to the contour choice

enter image description here

of the theory

$$ \mathcal{L}^{(4D)} = -\frac{1}{2} \partial^{\mu}\phi \partial_{\mu}\phi - \frac{1}{2}m^2\phi^2 + J\phi, \quad \mathcal{Z}^{(4D)}[J]=\int D\phi e^{i\int d^{4}x \mathcal{L}}, $$

implies the Yukawa potential of a static point source at $\mathbf{x'}=0$:

$$ \phi(\mathbf{x}) = \frac{1}{4\pi|\mathbf{x}|} e^{-m|\mathbf{x}|}. $$

My reasoning is that the following should hold:

$$ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} dt G_{\text{ret}}^{(4D)}(t, \mathbf{x}) = \phi(\mathbf{x}).$$

However, checking this with Mathematica, I observe that they do not match ($f$ is the integral of Green's function multiplied by $4\pi|\mathbf{x}|$, $g=\operatorname{exp}(-m|\mathbf{x}|), k=m|\mathbf{x}|$):

enter image description here

What am I supposed to do to correctly deduce the Yukawa potential, from the 4D Klein-Gordon theory?

  • 1
    For clarity and constency, may you add the definition of $G$? Other propagators are discussed here https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/279723/226902 Related/worth checking: https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/738835/226902 https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/510636/226902 – Quillo Mar 17 '24 at 08:33
  • 1
    Could you add the arguments of the Greensfunction $G_{ret}^{d=4}$ and define $\tau$. Moreover, are you sure that in the Lagrangian only the 3D gradient $\nabla$ appears ? Or should it be 4dimensional ? – Frederic Thomas Mar 17 '24 at 13:09
  • Thank you for the comments. I modified several points, and will work more on this later. – Hyeongmuk LIM Mar 18 '24 at 01:07

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