Full Description
The purpose of this book is to thoroughly prepare the reader for research in string theory at an intermediate level. As such it is not a compendium of results but intended as textbook in the sense that most of the material is organized in a pedagogical and self-contained fashion.
Beyond the basics, a number of more advanced topics are introduced, such as conformal field theory, superstrings and string dualities - the text does not cover applications to black hole physics and cosmology, nor strings theory at finite temperatures.
End-of-chapter references have been added to guide the reader wishing to pursue further studies or to start research in well-defined topics covered by this book.
Contents
The Classical Bosonic String.- The Quantized Bosonic String.- Introduction to Conformal Field Theory.- Parametrization Ghosts and BRST Quantization.- String Perturbation Theory and One-Loop Amplitudes.- The Classical Fermionic String.- The Quantized Fermionic String.- Superstrings.- Toroidal Compactifications - 10-Dimensional Heterotic String.- Conformal Field Theory II: Lattices and Kac-Moody Algebras.- Conformal Field Theory III: Superconformal Field Theory.- Covariant Vertex Operators, BRST and Covariant Lattices.- String Compactifications.- CFTs for Type II and Heterotic String Vacua.- String Scattering Amplitudes and Low Energy Effective Field Theory.- Compactifications of the Type II Superstring With D-branes and Fluxes.- String Dualities and M-theory.
