Quantum Field Theory for Economics and Finance

Description

An introduction to how the mathematical tools from quantum field theory can be applied to economics and finance, providing a wide range of quantum mathematical techniques for designing financial instruments. The ideas of Lagrangians, Hamiltonians, state spaces, operators and Feynman path integrals are demonstrated to be the mathematical underpinning of quantum field theory, and which are employed to formulate a comprehensive mathematical theory of asset pricing as well as of interest rates, which are validated by empirical evidence. Numerical algorithms and simulations are applied to the study of asset pricing models as well as of nonlinear interest rates. A range of economic and financial topics are shown to have quantum mechanical formulations, including options, coupon bonds, nonlinear interest rates, risky bonds and the microeconomic action functional. This is an invaluable resource for experts in quantitative finance and in mathematics who have no specialist knowledge of quantum field theory.

Belal Ehsan Baaquie is a Professor at The International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance. He received his training in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology and Cornell University, New York, specializing in quantum field theory. He later developed an interest in finance and economics, and started applying quantum mathematics to these fields. He has written two books on quantum finance: Quantum Finance (Cambridge, 2007) and Interest Rates and Coupon Bonds in Quantum Finance (Cambridge, 2009) in addition to several other books focusing on topics from quantum mechanics and mathematics to books on the leading ideas in science.

'This book could be just the volume for someone wanting to make the transition from calculating matrix elements to designing financial instruments, from spinors to swaps or from operators to options ... The book's structure interleaves traditional lessons in quantum field theory with topics in econophysics, producing a rather novel result.' Stephen J. Blundell, Contemporary Physics