Introduction to Superstrings and M-Theory

Superstrings - provocative, controversial, possibly untestable, but unarguably one of the most interesting and active areas of research in current physics. Called by some, "the theory of everything", superstrings may solve a problem which has eluded physicists for the past 50 years - the final unification of the two great theories of the twentieth century, general relativity and quantum field theory. Now, here is a course-tested comprehensive introductory graduate text on superstrings which stresses the most current areas of interest, not covered in other presentation, including: - string field theory - multi loops - Teichmueller spaces - conformal field theory - four-dimensional strings The book begins with a simple discussion of point particle theory, and uses the Feynman path integral technique to unify the presentation of superstrings. Prerequisites are an aquaintance with quantum mechanics and relativity. This second edition has been revised and updated throughout.

I First Quantization and Path Integrals.- 1 Path Integrals and Point Particles.- 2 Nambu—Goto Strings.- 3 Superstrings.- 4 Conformal Field Theory and Kac-Moody Algebras.- 5 Multiloops and Teichmüller Spaces.- II Second Quantization and the Search for Geometry.- 6 Light Cone Field Theory.- 7 BRST Field Theory.- III Phenomenology and Model Building.- 8 Anomalies and the Atiyah—Singer Theorem.- 9 Heterotic Strings and Compactification.- 10 Calabi—Yau Spaces and Orbifolds.- IV M-Theory.- 11 M-Theory and Duality.- 12 Compactifications and BPS States.- 13Solitons, D-Branes, and Black Holes.- A.1 A Brief Introduction to Group Theory.- A.2 A Brief Introduction to General Relativity.- A.3 A Brief Introduction to the Theory of Forms.- A.4 A Brief Introduction to Supersymmetry.- A.5 A Brief Introduction to Supergravity.- A.6 Notation.- References.