Functional Integration: Action and Symmetries

By Cécile Dewitt-Morette, Pierre Cartier, Cecile Dewitte-Morette

Book Overview

Functional integration successfully entered physics as path integrals in the 1942 PhD dissertation of Richard P. Feynman, but it made no sense at all as a mathematical definition. Cartier and DeWitt-Morette have created, in this book, a fresh approach to functional integration. The book is self-contained: mathematical ideas are introduced, developed, generalised and applied. In the authors' hands, functional integration is shown to be a robust, user-friendly and multi-purpose tool that can be applied to a great variety of situations, for example: systems of indistinguishable particles; Aharonov-Bohm systems; supersymmetry; non-gaussian integrals. Problems in quantum field theory are also considered. In the final part the authors outline topics that can be profitably pursued using material already presented.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521866960
• ISBN13: 9780521866965
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 476 Pages
• Weight: 2.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.1" x 10.0"