'This is the first comprehensive textbook on string theory to also offer an up-to-date picture of the most important theoretical developments of the last decade, including the AdS/CFT correspondence and flux compactifications, which have played a crucial role in modern efforts to make contact with experiment. An excellent resource for graduate students as well as researchers in high-energy physics and cosmology.' Nima Arkani-Hamed, Harvard University
1. Introduction; 2. The bosonic string; 3. Conformal field theory and string interactions; 4. Strings with world-sheet supersymmetry; 5. Strings with space-time supersymmetry; 6. T-duality and D-branes; 7. The heterotic string; 8. M-theory and string duality; 9. String geometry; 10. Flux compactifications; 11. Black holes in string theory; 12. Gauge theory/string theory dualities; References; Index.
1. Introduction; 2. The bosonic string; 3. Conformal field theory and string interactions; 4. Strings with world-sheet supersymmetry; 5. Strings with space-time supersymmetry; 6. T-duality and D-branes; 7. The heterotic string; 8. M-theory and string duality; 9. String geometry; 10. Flux compactifications; 11. Black holes in string theory; 12. Gauge theory/string theory dualities; References; Index.
Graduate textbook for courses in string theory.
String theory is one of the most exciting and challenging areas of modern theoretical physics. This book guides the reader from the basics of string theory to recent developments. It covers many topics including world-sheet supersymmetry, space-time supersymmetry, conformal field theory, the heterotic string, string geometry and flux compactifications, and Matrix theory. This book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in modern string theory, and will make an excellent textbook. It contains exercises with solutions, and homework problems with solutions available to lecturers at www.cambridge.org
String theory is one of the most exciting and challenging areas of modern theoretical physics. This book guides the reader from the basics of string theory to recent developments. It introduces the basics of perturbative string theory, world-sheet supersymmetry, space-time supersymmetry, conformal field theory and the heterotic string, before describing modern developments, including D-branes, string dualities and M-theory. It then covers string geometry and flux compactifications, applications to cosmology and particle physics, black holes in string theory and M-theory, and the microscopic origin of black-hole entropy. It concludes with Matrix theory, the AdS/CFT duality and its generalizations. This book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in modern string theory, and will make an excellent textbook for a one-year course on string theory. It contains over 120 exercises with solutions, and over 200 homework problems with solutions available on a password protected website for lecturers at www.cambridge.org/9780521860697.
Becker, Katrin
Katrin Becker is a Professor of Physics at Texas A & M University. She has been awarded the Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University in 2006 and received the Alfred Sloan Fellowship in 2003. Becker, Melanie
Melanie Becker is a Professor of Physics at Texas A & M University. In 2006 she has been awarded an Edward, Frances and Shirley B. Daniels Fellowship from the Radcliffe Fellowship for Advanced studies at Harvard University. In 2001 she received the Alfred Sloan Fellowship. Schwarz, John H.
John Schwarz is Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He is a MacArthur Fellow and member of the National Academy of Sciences.