Strings, Conformal Fields, and M-Theory

String theory continues to progress at an astonishing rate, and this book brings the reader up to date with the latest developments and the most active areas of research in the field. Building on the foundations laid in his Introduction to Superstrings and M Theory, Professor Kaku discusses such topics as the classification of conformal string theories, knot theory, the Yang-Baxter relation, quantum groups, and the insights into 11-dimensional strings recently obtained from M-theory. New chapters discuss such topics as Seiberg- Witten theory, M theory and duality., and D-branes. Several chapters review the fundamentals of string theory, making the presentation of the material self-contained while keeping overlap with the earlier book to a minimum. This book conveys the vitality of the current research and places readers at its forefront.

I Conformal Field Theory and Perturbation Theory.- 1 Introduction to Superstrings.- 2 BPZ Bootstrap and Minimal Models.- 3 WZW Model, Cosets, and Rational Conformal Field Theory.- 4 Modular Invariance and the A—D—E Classification.- N = 2 SUSY and Parafermions.- 6 Yang—Baxter Relation.- 7 Toward a Classification of Conformal Field Theories.- 8 Knot Theory and Quantum Groups.- II Nonperturbative Methods.- 9 String Field Theory.- 10 Non polynomial String Field Theory.- 11 2D Gravity and Matrix Models.- 12 Topological Field Theory.- 13 Seiberg—Witten Theory.- 14 M-Theory and Duality.- 15 D-Branes and CFT/ADS Duality.