On the infrared limit of the Chern-Simons-Proca theory

Abstract

We investigate a modification of the 2+1 dimensional abelian Chern-Simons theory, obtained by adding a Proca mass term to the gauge field. We are particularly interested in the infrared limit, which can be described by two {\it a priori} different "topological" quantum mechanical models. We apply methods of equivariant cohomology and the ensuing supersymmetry to analyze the partition functions of these quantum mechanical models. In particular, we find that a previously discussed phase-space reductive limiting procedure which relates these two models can be seen as a direct consequence of our supersymmetry.