Generalized Cumulant Expansion Method

The moment generating function of a set of stochastic variables defines the cumulants or the semi-invariants and the cumulant function. It is possible, simply by formal properties of exponential functions, to generaiize to a great extent the concepts of cumulants and cumulant function. The stochastic variables to be considered need not be ordinary c -numbers but they may be q -numbers such as used in quantum mechanics. The exponential function which defines a moment generating function may be any kind of generalized exponential, for example an ordered exponential with a certain prescription for ordering q -number variables. The definition of average may be greatly generalized as far as the condition is fulfilled that the average of unity is unity. After statements of a few basic theorems these generalizations are discussed here with certain examples of application. This generalized cumulant expansion provides us with a point of view from which many existent methods in quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics can be unified.