The Mathai-Quillen formalism and topological field theory
Mar, 199236 pages
Published in:
- J.Geom.Phys. 11 (1993) 95-127
Contribution to:
e-Print:
- hep-th/9203026 [hep-th]
Report number:
- NIKHEF-H-92-07
View in:
Citations per year
Abstract:
These lecture notes give an introductory account of an approach to cohomological field theory due to Atiyah and Jeffrey which is based on the construction of Gaussian shaped Thom forms by Mathai and Quillen. Topics covered are: an explanation of the Mathai-Quillen formalism for finite dimensional vector bundles; the definition of regularized Euler numbers of infinite dimensional vector bundles; interpretation of supersymmetric quantum mechanics as the regularized Euler number of loop space; the Atiyah-Jeffrey interpretation of Donaldson theory; the construction of topological gauge theories from infinite dimensional vector bundles over spaces of connections.- lectures: Karpacz 1992/02/17
- field theory: topological
- fibre bundle
- space-time: cohomology
- loop space
- knot theory
- quantum mechanics
- supersymmetry
- Donaldson theory
References(28)
Figures(0)