We develop systematically to all orders the forward scattering description for retarded amplitudes in field theories at zero temperature. Subsequently, through the application of the thermal operator, we establish the forward scattering description at finite temperature. We argue that, beyond providing a graphical relation between the zero temperature and the finite temperature amplitudes, this method is calculationally quite useful. As an example, we derive the important features of the one-loop retarded gluon self-energy in the hard thermal loop approximation from the corresponding properties of the zero temperature amplitude.

• Received 25 September 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.74.125005