Feynman–Kac formula for perturbations of order le 1, and noncommutative geometry

Abstract

Let Q be a differential operator of order le 1 on a complex metric vector bundle mathscr {E}rightarrow mathscr {M} with metric connection nabla over a possibly noncompact Riemannian manifold mathscr {M}. Under very mild regularity assumptions on Q that guarantee that nabla ^{dagger }nabla /2+Q canonically induces a holomorphic semigroup mathrm {e}^{-zH^{nabla }_{Q}} in Gamma _{L^2}(mathscr {M},mathscr {E}) (where z runs through a complex sector which contains [0,infty )), we prove an explicit Feynman–Kac type formula for mathrm {e}^{-tH^{nabla }_{Q}}, t>0, generalizing the standard self-adjoint theory where Q is a self-adjoint zeroth order operator. For compact mathscr {M}’s we combine this formula with Berezin integration to derive a Feynman–Kac type formula for an operator trace of the form TrV~∫0te-sHV∇Pe-(t-s)HV∇ds,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\begin{aligned} \\mathrm {Tr}\\left( \\widetilde{V}\\int ^t_0\\mathrm {e}^{-sH^{\ abla }_{V}}P\\mathrm {e}^{-(t-s)H^{\ abla }_{V}}\\mathrm {d}s\\right) , \\end{aligned}$$\\end{document}where V,widetilde{V} are of zeroth order and P is of order le 1. These formulae are then used to obtain a probabilistic representations of the lower order terms of the equivariant Chern character (a differential graded extension of the JLO-cocycle) of a compact even-dimensional Riemannian spin manifold, which in combination with cyclic homology play a crucial role in the context of the Duistermaat–Heckmann localization formula on the loop space of such a manifold.