Introduction to String Theory / by Sergio Cecotti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cecotti, Sergio, author.

Series:

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, 1864-5887

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematical physics.

Gravitation.

Particles (Nuclear physics).

Manifolds (Mathematics).

Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics.

Classical and Quantum Gravity.

Particle Physics.

Manifolds and Cell Complexes.

Local Subjects:

Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics.

Classical and Quantum Gravity.

Particle Physics.

Manifolds and Cell Complexes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (846 pages)

Edition:

1st ed. 2023.

Place of Publication:

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2023.

Summary:

Graduate students typically enter into courses on string theory having little to no familiarity with the mathematical background so crucial to the discipline. As such, this book, based on lecture notes, edited and expanded, from the graduate course taught by the author at SISSA and BIMSA, places particular emphasis on said mathematical background. The target audience for the book includes students of both theoretical physics and mathematics. This explains the book’s "strange" style: on the one hand, it is highly didactic and explicit, with a host of examples for the physicists, but, in addition, there are also almost 100 separate technical boxes, appendices, and starred sections, in which matters discussed in the main text are put into a broader mathematical perspective, while deeper and more rigorous points of view (particularly those from the modern era) are presented. The boxes also serve to further shore up the reader’s understanding of the underlying math. In writing this book, the author’s goal was not to achieve any sort of definitive conciseness, opting instead for clarity and "completeness". To this end, several arguments are presented more than once from different viewpoints and in varying contexts. .

Contents:

Chapter 1. The Polyakov path integral

Chapter 2. Introduction to 2d conformal field theories

Chapter 3. Spectrum, vertices, and BRST quantization

Chapter 4. Tree and one-loop amplitudes in the bosonic string

Chapter 5. Consistent 10d superstring, modular invariance, and all that

Chapter 6. The Heterotic string: part I

Chapter 7. Toroidal compactifications and T-duality (bosonic string)

Chapter 8. The Heterotic string: part II

Chapter 9. Superstring interactions and anomalies

Chapter 10. Superstring D-branes

Chapter 11. Strings at strong coupling

Chapter 12. Calabi-Yau compactifications. Appendix.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9783031365300