Inclusion of Chemical Potential for Scalar Fields

Abstract

There are two possible methods for the inclusion of the chemical potential in a relativistic bosonic field theory. The most popular method has recently been criticised by some authors, so much so as to require a re-analysis of the entire problem. I here present a new approach to the inclusion of the chemical potential that uses the second method and zeta-function regularisation techniques. I first apply it to the non-interacting field, obtaining an expression for the effective potential which is formally coincident with the well-known one from the first method. My approach, however, seems here mathematically more rigorous since it excludes the presence of the multiplicative anomaly. I then obtain a new expression for the one loop effective potential for the interacting field. This is regularised, presents less cryptic excitation energies, shows Goldstone excitations, and in the non-interacting limit gives the expected expression. The high-temperature expansion is calculated easily and with clarity, and confirms the results of the first method for the critical temperature.