Equivalence of effective actions

A bstract For the same quantum field theory distinct effective actions can be obtained by coupling sources to different choices of field variables. This is the same as considering effective actions for theories related by a change of variables and thus differ only by the values of so called inessential couplings. The effective actions will appear quite different since they generate correlation functions of different operators. Here we show that the effective actions are related by an implicit change of variables of the mean field, i.e. the argument of the effective action. Conversely, one can go the other way: by making a change of variables of the mean variable we obtain a new effective action which generates correlation functions of an implicitly defined composite field. The existence of the implicit transformations in both cases rests on the existence of solutions to initial value problems where the “time” parameter is an inessential coupling. Non-perturbatively the solutions may only exist for some non-zero amount of this time. However, at each order in perturbation theory one obtains linear equations which implies that unique solutions exist. We then show that scattering amplitudes are independent of inessential couplings without use of perturbation theory. For gauge theories we expect our correspondence to extend to effective actions which differ by a choice of gauge.