PG course on String Theory

This is the website for the PG course on String Theory taught by Joan Simón and José Figueroa-O'Farrill in the Autumn of 2007. The course will consist of 10 11 12 13 two-hour lectures.

Unless otherwise noted, lectures will take place on Tuesdays at 2:10pm in JCMB 4312, immediately after the Group Lunch^®.

Schedule of lectures

The following is a tentative list of lectures with topics. Not having taught this course before, the list of topics may require modification, but any such changes will be reflected in this web page as soon as possible.

1. Tuesday, 25 September 2007
   Joan Simón
   Introduction and lightcone gauge
2. Tuesday, 2 October 2007
   José Figueroa-O'Farrill
   Superstring spectra in Minkowski spacetime (I)
3. Friday, 12 October 2007
   José Figueroa-O'Farrill
   Superstring spectra in Minkowski spacetime (II)
   Joan Simón
   Effective actions for massless modes (I)
4. Tuesday, 16 October 2007
   Joan Simón
   Effective actions for massless modes (II)
5. Tuesday, 23 October 2007
   José Figueroa-O'Farrill
   Supergravity limits of string theories
6. Tuesday, 30 October 2007
   Joan Simón
   D-branes
7. Tuesday, 6 November 2007
   José Figueroa-O'Farrill
   Superalgebras
8. Tuesday, 13 November 2007
   Joan Simón
   Worldvolume actions
9. Tuesday, 20 November 2007
   Joan Simón
   Worldvolume solitons
10. Friday, 23 November 2007
    José Figueroa-O'Farrill
    T-duality (I)
11. Monday, 26 November 2007 @ 3pm
    José Figueroa-O'Farrill
    T-duality (II)
12. Friday, 30 November 2007 @ 11am in JCMB 5215
    Joan Simón
    M-theory
13. Friday, 7 December 2007 @ 10am
    Joan Simón
    The gauge/gravity correspondence

Problem sheets

Tutorial sheets will appear here containing problems which complete what is covered in lectures. The problems are an essential part of the course. They will be discussed during the tutorial sessions.

1. Introduction and ligthcone gauge
2. Spectrum of strings propagating in Minkowski spacetime
3. Density of states and effective actions for massless modes
4. Supergravity backgrounds
5. Supergravity branes
6. Superalgebras
7. Worldvolume solitons
8. T-duality
9. M-theory
10. AdS/CFT

Schedule of tutorials

Tutorial sessions are led by Paul de Medeiros and unless otherwise noted take place in the Maths Common Room at the following dates and times.

1. Thursday 11 October @ 4pm
2. Monday, 29 October @ 3pm
3. Monday, 5 November @ 3pm
4. Friday, 9 November @ 2pm
5. Monday, 12 November @ 3pm
6. Tuesday, 27 November @ 3pm in JCMB 4312
7. Thursday, 13 December @ 4pm

References

The following list does not exhaust by any means the available introductory references on the subject. The criteria for inclusion are based on their ready availability or on their being well-known to the lecturers. If you find something useful that is not listed here, let us know so that we may consider them for inclusion.

• Superstring Theory
  Michael Green, John Schwarz and Edward Witten
  The textbook on the first superstring revolution. There is no mention of branes or duality or M-theory.
• String theory
  Joe Polchinski
  The textbook on the verge of the second superstring revolution: D-branes are treated.

We are also maintaining a list of online references for this course here.