Abstract. The N = 2 spinning particle action describes the propagation of antisymmetric tensor fields, including vector fields as a special case. In this paper we study the path integral quantization on a one-dimensional torus of the N = 2 spinning particle coupled to spacetime gravity. The action has a local N = 2 worldline supersymmetry with a gauged U(1) symmetry that includes a Chern-Simons coupling. Its quantization on the torus produces the one-loop effective action for a single antisymmetric tensor. We use this worldline representation to calculate the first few Seeley-DeWitt coefficients for antisymmetric tensor fields of arbitrary rank in arbitrary dimensions. As side results we obtain the correct trace anomaly of a spin 1 particle in four dimensions as well as exact duality relations between differential form gauge fields. This approach yields a drastic simplification over standard heat-kernel methods. It contains on top of the usual proper time a new modular parameter implementing the reduction to a single tensor field. Worldline methods are generically simpler and more efficient in perturbative computations than standard QFT Feynman rules. This is particularly evident when the coupling to gravity is considered.

Key words: Sigma Models; Duality in Gauge Field Theories; Anomalies in Field and String Theories

E-print number: hep-th/0503155
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Received 23 March 2005, accepted for publication 7 April 2005
Published 28 April 2005