The Hamiltonian Approach and Phase Space Path Integration for Nonlinear Sigma Models with and without Fermions

Instead of imposing the Schr\"{o}dinger equation to obtain the configuration space propagator $\csprop$ for a quantum mechanical nonlinear sigma model, we directly evaluate the phase space propagator $\psprop$ by expanding the exponent and pulling all operators $\hat p$ to the right and $\hat x$ to the left. Contrary to the widespread belief that it is sufficient to keep only terms linear in $\Delta t$ in the expansion if one is only interested in the final result through order $\Delta t$, we find that all terms in the expansion must be retained. We solve the combinatorical problem of summing the infinite series in closed form through order $\Delta t$. Our results straightforwardly generalize to higher orders in $\Delta t$. We then include fermions for which we use coherent states in phase space. For supersymmetric $N{=}1$ and $N{=}2$ quantum mechanics, we find that if the super Van Vleck determinant replaces the original Van Vleck determinant the propagator factorizes into a classical part, this super determinant and the extra scalar curvature term which was first found by DeWitt for the purely bosonic case by imposing the Schr\"{o}dinger equation. Applying our results to anomalies in $n$-dimensional quantum field theories, we note that the operator ordering in the corresponding quantum mechanical Hamiltonians is fixed in these cases. We present a formula for the path integral action, which corresponds one to one to any given covariant or noncovariant $\hat H$. We then evaluate these path integrals through two loop order, and reobtain the same propagators in all cases.