Functional Integration and Quantum Physics (Pure and Applied Mathematics, a Series of Monographs and Textbooks, 86)
Academic Press | October 12 1979 | 320 pages | English | ISBN : 0126442509,0126442502 | PDF | 2.4MB
The main theme of this book is the "path integral technique" and its applications to constructive methods of quantum physics. The central topic is probabilistic foundations of the Feynman-Kac formula. Starting with main examples of Gaussian processes (the Brownian motion, the oscillatory process, and the Brownian bridge), the author presents four different proofs of the Feynman-Kac formula. Also included is a simple exposition of stochastic Itô calculus and its applications, in particular to the Hamiltonian of a particle in a magnetic field (the Feynman-Kac-Itô formula).
Among other topics discussed are the probabilistic approach to the bound of the number of ground states of correlation inequalities (the Birman-Schwinger principle, Lieb's formula, etc.), the calculation of asymptotics for functional integrals of Laplace type (the theory of Donsker-Varadhan) and applications, scattering theory, the theory of crushed ice, and the Wiener sausage.
