Thick morphisms of supermanifolds, quantum mechanics, and spinor representation

Abstract

"Thick" or "microformal" morphisms of supermanifolds generalize ordinary maps. They were discovered as a tool for homotopy algebras. Namely, the corresponding pullbacks provide $L_{\infty}$-morphisms for $S_{\infty}$ or Batalin--Vilkovisky algebras. It was clear from the start that constructions used for thick morphisms closely resemble some fundamental notions in quantum mechanics and their classical limits (such as action, Schr\"{o}dinger and Hamilton--Jacobi equations, etc.) There was also a natural question about any connection of thick morphisms with spinor representation. We answer both questions here. We establish relations of thick morphisms with fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics. We also show that in the linear setup quantum thick morphisms with quadratic action give (a version of) the spinor representation for a certain category of canonical linear relations, which is an analog of the Berezin--Neretin representation and a generalization of the metaplectic representation (and ordinary spinor representation).