Calculation of the propagator for a time-dependent damped,forced harmonic oscillator using the Schwinger action principle

A calculation of the quantum mechanical propagator for a general time-dependent one-dimensional damped, forced harmonic oscillator based on a direct application of the Schwinger action principle is presented. Contact with an earlier general method of calculation is made and in particular two previously found results are recovered from our general expression. The apparent dependence of one of them upon some unphysical parameters is clarified. The method presented here can be applied to any system described by a quadratic Hamiltonian and is an immediate extension of the calculation for the propagator of a simple harmonic oscillator with constant frequency.