Path Intergals and Perturbative Expansions for Non-Compact Symmetric Spaces

Abstract

We show how to construct path integrals for quantum mechanical systems where the space of configurations is a general non-compact symmetric space. Associated with this path integral is a perturbation theory which respects the global structure of the system. This perturbation expansion is evaluated for a simple example and leads to a new exactly soluble model. This work is a step towards the construction of a strong coupling perturbation theory for quantum gravity.