Functional Integration: Action and Symmetries (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics) - Softcover

Cartier, Pierre

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521143578 ISBN 13: 9780521143578

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Book Description

In this text, Cartier and DeWitt-Morette, using their complementary interests and expertise, successfully condense and apply the essentials of Functional Integration to a great variety of systems, showing this mathematically elusive technique to be a robust, user friendly and multipurpose tool.

About the Author

Emeritus Director of Research, Center National de la Recherche Scientifique, France. Member of Societe Francaise de Mathematiques and American Mathematical Society. Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor in Physics, Emerita, University of Texas at Austin. Member of American and European Physical Societies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521143578
• ISBN 13: 9780521143578
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480