Methods of Path Integration in Modern Physics

Since Richard Feynman recognized that quantum mechanics can be formulated in terms of path integrals, a broad range of applications for this useful calculational technique have emerged among physicists in such diverse areas as quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, nuclear and subnuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, quantum chemistry, condensed matter physics, complex systems, and astrophysics. Despite its broad range of dissemination neither the unifying approach to quantum and statistical field theory, i.e., the Feynman path integral, nor the advanced methods to address interacting quantum and statistical field theories are much covered in standard curricula. It is for this reason that this advanced summer school on path integration techniques aims to provide students and young independent researchers with a hands-on introduction in using path integrals for modern physics and to introduce the participants of the school with methods that go beyond the standard tools box of field theory. In order to create a common basis and set the stage for subsequent lectures, an introduction to the Feynman path integral in quantum mechanics will be given at the beginning of the school, followed by a selection of more advanced methods of quantum and statistical field theory.

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