The information geometry of 2-field functional integrals

Abstract

2-field functional integrals (2FFI) are an important class of solution methods for generating functions of dissipative processes, including discrete-state stochastic processes, dissipative dynamical systems, and decohering quantum densities. The stationary trajectories of these integrals describe a conserved current by Liouville's theorem, despite the fact that there is no conserved phase space current in the underlying stochastic process. We develop the information geometry of generating functions for discrete-state classical stochastic processes in the Doi-Peliti 2FFI form, showing that the conserved current is a Fisher information between the underlying distribution of the process and the tilting weight of the generating function. To give an interpretation to the time invertibility implied by current conservation, we use generating functions to represent importance sampling protocols, and show that the conserved Fisher information is the differential of a sample volume under deformations of the nominal distribution and the likelihood ratio. We derive a new pair of dual Riemannian connections respecting the symplectic structure of transport along stationary rays that gives rise to Liouville's theorem, and show that dual flatness in the affine coordinates of the coherent-state basis captures the special role played by coherent states in many 2FFI theories. The covariant convective derivative under time translation correctly represents the geometric invariants of generating functions under canonical transformations of the 2FFI field variables of integration.