PATH-INTEGRAL SOLUTION OF THE KRAMERS PROBLEM

An iterative method to generate a discrete path integral solution of t he Kramers problem is presented. It is based on a straightforward deri vation of the functional formalism from the underlying Langevin equati ons. The method is rather simple and systematic and allows us to analy tically evaluate the short time propagator up to and including terms o f fourth order in a time increment tau. This means a significant reduc tion of the number of time steps N that are necessary to obtain conver gent results for a given net increment t = N tau.