Supersymmetric Quantum Cosmology (Q4350167)

Quantum cosmology was invented in 1967 when DeWitt applied canonical methods to a one-dimensional ``mini-superspace'' of Friedmann universes. More general homogeneous cosmologies were treated in the same vein in the early seventies. The subject than entered a quieter period and was reviewed in 1983 by the Hartle-Hawking ``no-boundary'' proposal for the quantum state of the universe. Subsequent work allowed for perturbations around an isotropic universe and even lead to testable results concerning the cosmic microwave background. Also in the eighties, the approach was extended to supergravity, the locally supersymmetric generalization of Einstein gravity, with substantial contributions originating from the author of this book. It is the only monograph that has appeared so far on the subject of quantum cosmology and provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art (as of 1996), with special emphasis on supergravity. The reader should possess a good working knowledge of general relatively and quantum mechanics including the Dirac equation. The Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity and the path integral à la Feynman and Hibbs are covered in a general chapter on quantum cosmology. Fermions make their appearance already in the last section of this chapter. The next chapters are on the canonical quantization of supergravity, the quantum amplitude of supergravity including a derivation of two-loop finiteness, and on supersymmetric mini-superspace models. Quantum states describing supersymmetric four-dimensional Euclidean wormholes are discussed in a separate chapter. There is also a chapter on the quantization of general relativity and supergravity using Ashtekar's new variables. The final chapter presents some open problems, including conjectures on the finiteness (to all loop orders) of \(N\geq 1\) supergravity theories and supergravity coupled to supermatter. In spite of the fact that the book contains many original research results obtained by the author himself, the presentation is pedagogical. There are very few mistakes or misprints, and the standard of mathematical rigor is as high as can be reasonably expected from a book that covers an area that does not strictly belong to mathematical physics.