(Ebook) Functional Integration: Action and Symmetries by Cartier P. ISBN 9780511260292, 0511260296

(Ebook) Functional Integration: Action and Symmetries by Cartier P. ISBN 9780511260292, 0511260296

Functional integration successfully entered physics as path integrals in the 1942 Ph.D. 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 new approach to functional integration. The book is self-contained: mathematical ideas are introduced, developed generalised and applied. In the authorsв?T 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; Aharanov-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.