Quadratic Actions in Dependent Fields and the Action Principle

General field theories are considered, within the functional differential formalism of quantum field theory, with interaction Lagrangian densities L _I (x;λ), with λ a generic coupling constant, such that the following expression ∂ L _I (x;λ)/∂ λ may be expressed as quadratic functions in dependent fields but may, in general, be arbitrary functions of independent fields. These necessarily include, as special cases, present renormalizable gauge theories. It is shown, in a unified manner, that the vacuum-to-vacuum transition amplitude (the generating functional) may be explicitly derived in functional differential form which, in general, leads to modifications to computational rules by including such factors as Faddeev–Popov ones and modifications thereof which are explicitly obtained. The derivation is given in the presence of external sources and does not rely on any symmetry and invariance arguments as is often done in gauge theories and no appeal is made to path integrals.