String Theory (L 24)

Paul Townsend
The basic idea of String Theory is that elementary particles are excitations of a relativistic
string, which could be open (i.e. with two endpoints) or closed. Each quantum excitation of
the string behaves like an elementary particle, and closed strings have a massless spin-2 particle
in their spectrum, which suggests that String Theory is a theory of quantum gravity. Open
strings yield analogous generalisations of gauge theory, so a theory of open and closed strings is
potentially one that can unify gravity with the forces of the standard model of particle physics.
This course will introduce the strings of string theory as examples of constrained Hamiltonian
dynamics. Various methods of quantisation (light-cone, covariant, path-integral) will be illus-
trated using the point particle and applied to the free Nambu-Goto (bosonic) string. This will
reveal that there is a critical space-time dimension (26 for the Nambu-Goto string) and that the
ground state is a tachyon. A study of the possible boundary conditions on open strings will re-
veal that String Theory also includes branes. The spinning string , with critical space-time
dimension 10, will be introduced as a generalisation of the spinning particle. How this leads
to tachyon-free superstring theories will be briey discussed, with an even briefer discussion of
why there are ve of them.
Interactions of strings will be introduced using Euclidean path-integral methods, with a brief
introduction to conformal eld theory. The simplest scattering amplitudes for particles in the
the spectrum of the Nambu-Goto string (Veneziano, Virasoro) will be derived and analysed.
General principles of perturbation theory that follow from the path-integral approach will be
used to introduce the idea of an eective spacetime action as a double expansion in the inverse
string tension and a string coupling constant, reducing to 10-dimensional GR (or supergravity)
at leading order. This will provide the basis for a brief discussion of how the ve superstring
theories are unied by an 11-dimensional M-Theory.
Pre-requisites
This course assumes only a basic knowledge of classical and quantum mechanics, although some
previous (or parallel) exposure to QFT and GR will be useful.
Literature
In this course, String Theory is developed from a Hamiltonian perspective that does not have
much overlap with current texts. However, the books that are likely to be most useful are
1. Green, Schwarz and Witten, Superstring Theory: Vol. 1, CUP 1987.
2. L ust and Theisen, Lecture Notes in Physics: Superstring Theory. Springer, 1989.
3. Brink and Henneaux, Principles Of String Theory. Plenum, 1988.
Additional support
Complete course notes will be provided, along with four examples sheets.
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