Perturbative or Path-Integral Approach versus Operator-Formalism Approach

Abstract

In the conformal-gauge two-dimensional quantum gravity, the solution obtained by the perturbative or path-integral approach is compared with the one obtained by the operator-formalism approach. Treatments of the anomaly problem in both approaches are different. This difference is found to be essentially caused by the fact that the perturbative or path-integral approach is based on the T*-product (covariantized T-product), which generally violates field equations. Indeed, this fact induces some extra one-loop Feynman diagrams, which would not exist unless a nonzero contribution arose from a zero field. Some demerits of the path-integral approach are explicitly demonstrated.