Coherent States in Field Theory

Abstract

Coherent states have three main properties: coherence, overcompleteness and intrinsic geometrization. These unique properties play fundamental roles in field theory, especially, in the description of classical domains and quantum fluctuations of physical fields, in the calculations of physical processes involving infinite number of virtual particles, in the derivation of functional integrals and various effective field theories, also in the determination of long-range orders and collective excitations, and finally in the exploration of origins of topologically nontrivial gauge fields and associated gauge degrees of freedom.