Computing Spectral Densities in Finite Temperature Field Theory

Abstract

Convenient Cutkosky-like diagrammatic rules for computing the spectral densities of arbitrary two-point correlation functions in finite temperature field theory are derived. The approach is based on an explicit analytic continuation of imaginary-time Feynman diagrams and avoids the complications of real-time finite temperature perturbation theory. The application of this method to the perturbative evaluation of transport coefficients is briefly discussed.