Effective equations for GFT condensates from fidelity

The derivation of effective equations for group field theories is discussed from a variational point of view, with the action being determined by the fidelity of the trial state with respect to the exact state. It is shown how the maximisation procedure with respect to the parameters of the trial state lead to the expected equations, in the case of simple condensates. Furthermore, we show that the second functional derivative of the fidelity gives a compact way to estimate, within the effective theory itself, the limits of its validity. The generalisation can be extended to include the Nakajima–Zwanzig projection method for general mixed trial states.