Equivariant Morse theory and quantum integrability

Abstract

We investigate an equivariant generalization of Morse theory for a general class of integrable models. In particular, we derive equivariant versions of the classical Poincaré-Hopf and Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorems and present the corresponding path integral generalizations. Our approach is based on equivariant cohomology and localization techniques, and is closely related to the formalism developed by Matthai and Quillen in their approach to Gaussian shaped Thom forms.