Supersymmetry For Mathematicians: An Introduction
by V. S. Varadarajan /
2004 / English / PDF
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Supersymmetry has been the object of study by theoretical physicists since the early 1970's. In recent years it has attracted the interest of mathematicians because of its novelty, and because of significance, both in mathematics and physics, of the main issues it raises. This book presents the foundations of supersymmetry to the mathematically minded reader in a cogent and self-contained manner. It begins with a brief introduction to the physical foundations of the theory, especially the classification of relativistic particles and their wave equations, such as the equations of Dirac and Weyl. It then continues the development of the theory of supermanifolds stressing the analogy with the Grothendieck theory of schemes. All the super linear algebra needed for the book is developed here and the basic theorems are established: differential and integral calculus in supermanifolds, Frobenius theorem, foundations of the theory of super Lie groups, and so on. A special feature of the book is the treatment in depth of the theory of spinors in all dimensions and signatures, which is the basis of all developments of supergeometry both in physics and mathematics, especially in quantum field theory and supergravity.
