Mathai-Quillen Formalism
Abstract
Description
We begin with the construction of Mathai-Quillen's Thom form. We also study the case with group actions, with a review of equivariant cohomology and then Mathai-Quillen's construction in this setting. Next, we show that much of the above can be formulated as a "field theory" on a superspace of one fermionic dimension. Finally, we present the interpretation of topological field theories using the Mathai-Quillen formalism.
9 pages, contribution to the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics
9 pages, contribution to the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics