Although more than 60 years have passed since their first appearance, Feynman path integrals have yet to lose their fascination and luster. They are not only a formidable instrument of theoretical physics, but also a mathematical challenge; in fact, several mathematicians in the last 40 years have devoted their efforts to the rigorous mathematical definition of Feynman's ideas.This volume provides a detailed, self-contained description of the mathematical difficulties as well as the possible techniques used to solve these difficulties. In particular, it gives a complete overview of the mathematical realization of Feynman path integrals in terms of well-defined functional integrals, that is, the infinite dimensional oscillatory integrals. It contains the traditional results on the topic as well as the more recent developments obtained by the author.Mathematical Feynman Path Integrals and Their Applications is devoted to both mathematicians and physicists, graduate students and researchers who are interested in the problem of mathematical foundations of Feynman path integrals.

Suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, this text develops the techniques of path integration and deals with applications, covering a host of illustrative examples. 26 figures. 1981 edition.

The Advanced Study Institute on "Path Integrals and Their Applications in Quantum, Statistical, and Solid State Physics" was held at the University of Antwerpen (R.U.C.A.), July 17-30, 1977. The Institute was sponsored by NATO. Co-sponsors were: A.C.E.C. (Belgium), Agfa-Gevaert (Belgium), l'Air Li~uide BeIge (Belgium), Be1gonucleaire (Belgium), Bell Telephone Mfg. Co. (Belgium), Boelwerf (Belgium), Generale BankmaatschappiJ (Belgium), I.B.M. (Belgium), Kredietbank (Belgium), National Science Foundation (U.S.A.), Siemens (Belgium). A total of 100 lecturers and partici pants attended the Institute. The development of path (or functional) integrals in relation to problems of stochastic nature dates back to the early 20's. At that time, Wiener succeeded in obtaining the fundamental solution of the diffusion e~uation using Einstein's joint probability of finding a Brownian particle in a succession of space intervals during a corresponding succession of time intervals. Dirac in the early 30's sowed the seeds of the path integral formulation of ~uantum mecha nics. However, the major and decisive step in this direction was taken with Feynman's works in ~uantum and statistical physics, and quantum electrodynamicso The applications now extend to areas such as continuous mechanics, and recently functional integration methods have been employed by Edwards for the study of polymerized matter

Topological restrictions. These are relevant to the understanding of the statistical properties of elementary particles and the entanglement phenomena in polymer physics and biophysics. The Chern-Simons theory of particles with fractional statistics (anyons) is introduced and applied to explain the fractional quantum Hall effect." "The relevance of path integrals to financial markets is discussed, and improvements of the famous Black-Scholes formula for option prices are developed which account for the fact that large market fluctuations occur much more frequently than in Gaussian distributions." --Book Jacket.

Graduate-level, systematic presentation of path integral approach to calculating transition elements, partition functions, and source functionals. Covers Grassmann variables, field and gauge field theory, perturbation theory, and nonperturbative results. 1992 edition.

The applications of functional integral methods introduced in this text for solving a range of problems in quantum field theory will prove useful for students and researchers in theoretical physics and quantum field theory.