dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaSupersymmetry and Brownian motion on supermanifolds
| Authors | Alice Rogers |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0201006 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0201006 |
Abstract
An anticommuting analogue of Brownian motion, corresponding to fermionic quantum mechanics, is developed, and combined with classical Brownian motion to give a generalised Feynman-Kac-It\^o formula for paths in geometric supermanifolds. This formula is applied to give a rigorous version of the proofs of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem based on supersymmetric quantum mechanics. It is also shown how superpaths, parametrised by a commuting and an anticommuting time variable, lead to a manifestly supersymmetric approach to the index of the Dirac operator. After a discussion of the BFV approach to the quantization of theories with symmetry, it is shown how the quantization of the topological particle leads to the supersymmetric model introduced by Witten in his study of Morse theory.
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"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:49.223000Z",
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"abstract": "An anticommuting analogue of Brownian motion, corresponding to fermionic\nquantum mechanics, is developed, and combined with classical Brownian motion to\ngive a generalised Feynman-Kac-It\\^o formula for paths in geometric\nsupermanifolds. This formula is applied to give a rigorous version of the\nproofs of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem based on supersymmetric quantum\nmechanics. It is also shown how superpaths, parametrised by a commuting and an\nanticommuting time variable, lead to a manifestly supersymmetric approach to\nthe index of the Dirac operator. After a discussion of the BFV approach to the\nquantization of theories with symmetry, it is shown how the quantization of the\ntopological particle leads to the supersymmetric model introduced by Witten in\nhis study of Morse theory.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0201006",
"authors": [
"Alice Rogers"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "Supersymmetry and Brownian motion on supermanifolds",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0201006"
},
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