This comprehensive textbook on the theory and applications of path integrals is the first to contain the solutions to a number of non-trivial path integrals, most notably of the Coulomb system. It has become possible by finding a consistent formulation of path integrals in spaces with curvature and torsion, presented here also for the first time. Special emphasis is given to stability problems of path fluctuations in the presence of singular potentials such as centrifugal and angular barriers. The limitations of Feynman's time slicing procedure are exhibited and a new path integral formula is...

This is the second, significantly expanded edition of the comprehensive textbook of 1990 on the theory and applications of path integrals. It is the first book to explicitly solve path integrals of a wide variety of nontrivial quantum-mechanical systems, in particular of the hydrogen atom. The solutions have been made possible by two major advances. The first is a new euclidean path integral formula which increases the restricted range of applicability of Feynman's famous formula to include singular 1/r- and 1/r2-potentials. The second is a simple quantum equivalence principle governing the...