An Outline of String

Theory
Miao Li

Institute of
Theoretical Physics
Beijing, China
 Contents
I. Background
II. Elements of string theory
III. Branes in string theory
IV. Black holes in string theory-
holography-Maldacenas conjecture
 I. Background

1. The world viewed by a reductionist

Lets start from where Feynmans lecture starts

A drop of water enlarged 10^9

times

O
Feynman was able to deduce a lot of things
from a single sentence:

All forms of matter consist of atoms.

1. Qualitative properties of gas, liquid

2. Evaporation, heat transport (to cool your

Soup, blow it)

3. Understanding of sounds, waves

 Electron, point-like
Atomic structure

H:

10^{-8}cm Nucleus 10^{-13} cm

Theory: QED (including Lamb shift)

Interaction strength:
Dirac:

QED explains all of chemistry and most of

physics.

Periodic table of elements, chemical reactions,

superconductors, some of biology.
Sub-atomic structure

Nucleus of H=proton
u
u
d

u=2/3 U(1), d=-1/3 U(1), in addition, colors of SU(3)

Neutron:

u d

Interaction strengths

QED
Size of H=Compton length of electron/=
Strong interaction

Size of proton=Compton length of quark/

So the strong interactions are truly strong,

perturbative methods fail.

QCD is Still unsolved

Another subatomic force: weak interaction

-decay

How strong (or how weak) is weak interaction?

Depends on the situation. For quarks:

-mass of u-quark
-mass of W-boson
Finally, gravity, the weakest of all four
interactions

-mass of proton
-Planck mass

(so )
Summary:

Strong interaction-SU(3) Yang-Mills

Electromagnetic

Weak interaction SU(2)XU(1)

Gravity
To asses the possibility of unification, lets
Take a look at

2. A brief history of amalgamation of physical

theories.

Movement of earthly bodies.

Movement of celestial bodies.

Newtonian mechanics + universal gravitation.

17th century.
 Mechanics
Heat, thermodynamics

Atomic theory, statistical mechanics of

Maxwell, Boltzmann, Gibbs, 19th century.

Electrodynamics
Magnetism
Light, X-rays, -rays

Faraday, Maxwell, 19th century.

 Quantum electrodynamics
Weak interaction

Semi-unification, Weinberg-Salam model.

The disparity between 10^{-2} and 10^{-6}
is solved by symmetry breaking in gauge
theory.

1960s-1970s

(`t Hooft, Veltman, Nobel prize in 1999, total

Five Nobel medals for this unification.)
Although eletro-weak, strong interaction
appear as different forces, they are governed
by the same universal principle:

Quantum mechanics or better

Qantum field theory

valid up to
Further, there is evidence for unification of
3 forces:

(a) In 4 dimensions,

goes up with E

goes down with E

(b) runs as powers of E if there are large

compact dimensions ( )
3. Difficulty with gravity

Gravity, the first ever discovered interaction,

has resisted being put into the framework of
quantum field theory.

So, we have a great opportunity here!

Why gravity is different?

There are many aspects, here is a few.

(a) The mediation particle has spin 2.

Thus

amplitude=

The next order to the Born approximation

amplitude=
(b) According to Einstein theory, gravity is
geometry. If geometry fluctuates violently,
causal structure is lost.

(c) The existence of black holes.

(c1) The failure of classical geometry.

singularity
(c2) A black hole has a finite entropy, or a
state of a black hole can not be specified by
what is observed outside.

Hawking radiation, is quantum coherence lost?

Curiously, the interaction strength at the

horizon is not .

The larger the BH, the weak the interaction.

GR predicts the surface gravity be

Curiously,

Size of black hole=Compton length/

or
To summarize, the present days accepted
picture of our fundamental theory is
4. The emergence of string theory

A little history

Strong interaction is described by QCD,

however, the dual resonance model was
invented to describe strong interaction first,
and eventually became a candidate of theory
of quantum gravity.

Initially, there appeared infinitely many

resonant states ( ,,)
None of the resonant states appears more
fundamental than others. In calculating an
amplitude, we need to sum up all intermediate
states:

=
n

Denote this amplitude by A(s,t) :

(a)
(b) Analytically extend A(s,t) to the complex
plane of s, t, we must have

Namely

n = n

This is the famous s-t channel duality.

A simple formula satisfying (a) and (b) is the
famous Veneziano amplitude

polynomial in t: t^J, J-spin of the intermediate state

linear trajectory
This remarkable formula leads us to

String theory

For simplicity, consider open strings (to which

Veneziano amplitude corresponds)

Ground state v=c

v=c
An excited state
v=c v=c
To calculate the spectrum of the excited states,
We look at a simple situation (Neuman->Dirichlet)

Let the tension of the string be T, according to
Heisenberg uncertainty relation

Now

or
If , then

Casimir effect

The above derivation ignores factors such as

2s, s. More generally, there can be

We discovered the linear trajectory.

Morals:

(a) There are infinitely many massive states resulting from a

single string (Q.M. is essential)

(b) If we have only bosonic strings, no internal colors, we

can have only integral spins.
spin 1: gauge bosons
spin 2: graviton

(c) To have a massless gauge boson, a=-1. To have a

massless graviton, a=-2 (need to use closed strings).
 II. Elements of string theory
1. First quantized strings, Feynman rules

Particle analogue
Action
A classical particle travels along the shortest
path, while a quantum particle can travel
along different paths simultaneously, so we
would like to compute
Generalization to a string

T tension of the string

dS Minkowski area element

dS
Curiously, string can propagate consistently
only when the dimension of spacetime is
D=26

Why is it so?

We have the string spectrum

Each physical boson on the world sheet
contributes to the Casimir energy an amount
a=-1/24.

When n=1, we obtain a spin vector field with

# of degrees D-2

For

A tachyon! This breaks Lorentz invariance, so

only for D=26, Lorentz invariance is
maintained.
But there is a tachyon at n=0, bosonic string
theory is unstable.

Unstable mode if E is complex

For a closed string

(There are two sets of D-2 modes, left moving and right moving:

)
For n=2, we have a spin 2 particle, there are
however only D(D-3) such states, it ought to
be massless to respect Lorentz invariance,
again D=26.

Interactions

In case of particles, use Feynman diagram to

describe physical process perturbatively:

+ +

+
Associated to each type of vertex

more legs
there is a coupling constant

The only constraint on these couplings is

renormalizability.

Associated with each propagator

=
Or

By analogy, for string interaction

+ +

The remarkable fact is that for each topology

there is only one diagram.
While for particles, this is not the case, for
example

= +

+ +

+
Surely, this is the origin of s-t channel duality.

One can trace this back to the fact that there

is unique string interaction vertex:

Rejoining or splitting
The contribution of a given diagram is

n=# of vertices = genus of the world sheet.

In case of the closed strings

+
Again, there is a unique diagram for each
topology, the vertex is also unique

The open string theory must contain closed

Strings

=
The intermediate state is a closed string,
unitarity requires closed strings be in the
spectrum.

There is a simple relation between the open

string and the closed string couplings.

Emission vertex=
Now

Emission vertex=

Thus,
2. Gauge interaction and gravitation

= massless open strings

= massless closed strings

Define the string scale

Yang-Mills coupling

by dimensional analysis.

Gravitational coupling
So

If there is a compact space

D=4+d =volume of the compact space

We have
Since in 4 dimensions , we have

Phenomenologically, at the unification

scale, so .

We see that in order to raise the string scale,

say , we demand . With the
advent of D-branes, in the T-dual picture this
Implies
Large extra dimensions
3. Introducing fermions, supersymmetry

In order to incorporate spin etc into the

string spectrum, one is led to introducing
fermions living on the world sheet.

Again, the particle analogue is

The same as what Dirac did.

( )
Similarly, one introduces on the
world sheet.

This led to the discovery of supersymmetry for

the first time in the western world (2D)
(independent of Golfand and Lihktman)

Two sectors

(a) Ramond sector

(b) Neveu-Schwarz sector

The Ramond sector contains spacetime

fermions

Zero mode

The Neveu-Schwarz sector contains bosons

Now the on-shell condition

is modified to (open string)

n-integer in R sector
n-half integer in NS sector

D=10: NS: n=1/2, massless gauge bosons

R: n=0, massless fermions

 8 bosons + 8 fermions =supermultiplet
in 10D.

Spacetime supersymmetry is a consequence.

In a way, we can say the following

(a) Bosonic strings are strings moving in the

ordinary spacetime , but quantum
mechanics disfavors pure bosons, they are
unstable.
(b) Superstrings move in superspace ,
or , no way to avoid SUSY!

4. Five different string theories in 10

dimensions.

Consistency conditions allow for only 5

different string theories (it appears that we
have a complete list, thanks to duality)

4.1 open superstring or type I string theory

Characteristics:
(a) There are open strings, whose massless
modes are super Yang-Mills in 10D.

(b) As we said, there must be closed strings

(unitarity). The massless modes are N=1
SUGRA in 10D.

(c) One can associate a charge to an end of

an open string.

fundamental representation of G, anti-fundamental rep of G

Combined, they form the adjoint rep of G.

G can be U(N), Sp(N), SO(N).

For U(N), the two ends are different, therefore

one may label the orientation of the string.

For Sp(N) and SO(N), the two ends are identical,

thus the string is un-oriented.

(d) Further, anomaly cancellation

G= SO(32)
Type I theory is also chiral.

4.2 Closed superstring, type IIA

For a closed string: and

The left movers are independent of the right

movers.

or superposition of them.
 two sets of matrices.

Therefore, two basic choices

One choice:
chiral
anti-chiral

We have type IIA superstring theory, no

chirality. Thus, it appears that it has nothing
to do with the real world.

The massless modes = type IIA SUGRA.

4.3 Type IIB superstring theory

If
chiral
chiral

We have type IIB string theory, it is chiral.

Although type IIB theory is chiral, it has no

gauge group, it appears to be ruled out by
Nature too.
4.4 Two heterotic string theories

L: 10D superstring
R: 26D bosonic string

26=10+16

Naively, it leads to gauge group , but the

Gauge symmetry is enhanced:

or
In the heterotic theory, there is only one ,
the theory is chiral.

Remarkably, the low energy sector of the

SO(32) heterotic theory is identical to that of
type I theory, is this merely coincidence?

Some lessons we learned before the summer

of 1994:

1. String theory is remarkably rigid, it must have SUSY, it

must live in 10D. There are only 5 different theories. Even
the string coupling constant is dynamical.
2. It has too many consistent vacuum solutions, to pick up
one which describes our world, we have to develop
nonperturbative methods.

3. It tells us that some concepts of spacetime are illusion, for

instance T-duality tells us that a circle of radius R is
equivalent to a circle of radius 1/R (in string unit). Sometimes,
even spaces of different topologies are equivalent.

4. The theory is finite. The high energy behavior is extremely

soft.

The more the energy, the larger the area S. is small.

5. There are a lot of things unknown to us, we must be
modest (such as, what about the cosmological constant?)

What we could not do before 1994:

1. Any nonpertubative calculation.

2. What happens to black holes, what happens to

singularities.

3. No derivation of the standard model.

 III. Branes in String/M theory

1. Why branes?

In the past, it was often asked that if one can

replace particles by strings, why not other
branes such as membranes?

The answer to this question were always:

(a) We know how to quantize particles and

strings, while we inevitably end up with
inconsistency in quantizing other objects.
(b) Perturbative string theory is unitary, no
need to add to the spectrum other things.

Thus (a) and in particular (b) sounds like a

no-go theorem.

To avoid this no-go theorem, we need to look

up no other than quantum field theory.

(a) In some QFT, there are solitons, these

objects can be quantized indirectly by
quantizing fluctuations of original fields in
the soliton background.
(b) A theory may be unitary perturbatively,
but nonperturbatively the S-matrix may not
be unitary (showing up in resummation of a
divergent series).

Such inconsistency arises in particular when

new stable particles exist, their masses are
heavy when g is small.
Some stable particles can be associated with
conservation of charge.

For example, when there is an Abelian gauge

field

Happily, for a oriented closed string there is

also a gauge field
Of course, when the space has a simple
topology, there is no conserved charge

string

If there is a circle and the string is wrapped

on it, there is a charge.

This is just conservation of winding number.

In a string theory, there is a variety of other
high rank gauge fields, for instance, the so
called Ramond-Ramond tensor field:

But the perturbative states, strings, are not

coupled to them directly. Are these fields
wasted?

There is a plausible argument for the

existence of p-brane coupled to C .
One can always find a black-brane solution
with a long-ranged

p+1
horizon

r
When , there is no apparent function
source for . In other words, the
source is the smeared fields carried by the BH
solution.

This avoids the apparent paradox that

perturbative fields carry no charge.

If , , black brane decays, but it

will stop at

A soliton charged under , stable.

The stability is due to

(a) is conserved.

(b) implies naked singularity.

The p-brane will be called D-brane, or

multiple D-branes. Their tension is large when
g small.

They can be viewed as a collective

excitation of strings, but there is another
beautiful interpretation!
2. Emergence of D-branes

D is shorthand for Dirichlet. In a closed string

theory, the ends of a open string are stuck on
a D-brane. Namely, these ends are confined in
the bulk. (The brane is like a defect in a
superconductor.)

+ -
We argued that there must be fundamental
branes saturating the BPS bound .

If is continuous, as the classical solution

suggests, we have the trouble for accounting
a continuous spectrum.

Fortunately, some time ago, it was proven

that must be quantized, according to a
generalized Dirac quantization condition.
Denote dual to

rank=8-p rank=p+2

Thus
Some unit

Both and are quantized.

We said that the microscopic description of a
fundamental p-brane is D-brane. We now
follow the route that Polchinski originally
followed to see how this description emerges
in string theory.

2.1 T-duality

To understand the logic behind D-branes, we

need to review T-duality.
There are waves on a circle:

There are also winding states on a circle:

Define a new radius such that

Then

That is, wave modes winding modes.

We cannot distinguish a string theory on a
circle of radius R from another string theory
on a circle of radius . T-duality.
2.2 T-duality for open strings

Starting with an open string theory which

contains closed strings automatically.

How do we map open string wave modes?

An open string can couple to a gauge field

tangent to a circle:
if

The natural interpretation is

Thus, an open string wave mode is mapped to
a winding mode with ends attached to
something: D-branes.

Boundary conditions on the ends of the string

are Dirichlet. In the original theory
momentum is conserved, thus in the dual
theory winding number is conserved, the ends
stick to branes.

In the original theory, winding is not

conserved, no such quantum number.
2.3 Brane tension

emission absorption

Open string channel

Closed string channel

The old idea of s-t channel duality:

one-loop tree-level

From the open string perspective, the

interaction between 2 D-branes :

Amplitude= vacuum fluctuations, independent of g

From the closed string perspective

amplitude =

But

Exact formula is
2.4 Effective theory on D-branes

Open string fluctuations longitudinal to D-

branes: gauge fields;

Open string fluctuations traverse to D-branes:

scalar fields;

Fermions = Goldstone modes.

The position of a D-brane = vev of scalars

A geometric interpretation of the Higgs

mechanism:

massless

massive
3. Branes as solitonic solutions

Back to the field.

(generalization of )

We use the action

Postulate a solution breaking

Breaking
Further,

The solution is
When r large

so

When r small

There is no pt-like source for . That is, the

all non-linear structure of fields serve as a
smeared source-just like the monopole
solution in a broken gauge theory.
The mass, or rather the tension

While

It is interesting to note that there is a formal

horizon:
But there is no entropy

So this black brane is more or less a pure

state.

We know that it is the ground state of N

coincident D-branes.
4. Implications for string dualities

In type IIA string theory, there is pt-like

soliton with mass

so

How to understand the theory when ?

There is an additional circle of radius
so is a K-K mode of graviton.
 Type IIB theory, there is

D-string

Bound states of D-strings + F-strings:

(p,q)-dyonic strings. This is implied by the
SL(2,Z) duality.

In type I theory, there is also

Another kind of D-string, this is the heterotic

string.

The list continues

Type I SO(32) or

Heterotic SO(32)

heterotic string

32 free fermions

16 bosons
 IV. Black holes in string theory

1. Basics

In real world, only a very massive collapsing

body can form a black hole

due to the fact that the basic matter

constituents are fermions.

Small black holes could (and perhaps did)

form in early universe.
In an ideal situation, such as a free scalar field,
any mass of black hole can form.

The typical black hole (in 4D)

No signal can escape from the horizon.

 Black hole no hair theorem

Outside a black hole, one can measure only a

few conserved quantities, associated to long
range fields:

Mass, angular momentum, charge

Gravitational field, EM field

 Classical information loss

Black hole
 Bekenstein-Hawking entropy

Due to the no-hair theorem and the second

law of thermodynamics, a black hole must
have entropy.

State 1, state 2, state 3, state 1 billion

The same black hole

An interesting theorem proven in 60s and
70s:

A = area of black hole never decreases.

Thus, S of the black hole must be ~ A

So, Bekenstein reasoned

S=A

But, what is ?
Bekenstein argued, using an infalling massive
spin particle, that . This differs
from the correct value .

Hawking discovered Hawking radiation and

computed

Use
 Thermodynamics

Zero-th law: there is a temperature.

First law:

Second law

Third law: T=0 is impossible.

 Quantum information loss

Radiation, mixed state

2. Black holes in string theory

Pre D-brane era

Almost no string theorits believed in the claim

of Hawking, that QM breaks down, and
Einstein wins anyway.

Perturbative string theory is important in

dealing with such a situation, to quote
Susskind:
String theory perhaps has to solve itself before solving the
information loss paradox-Scientific American.
There were a few proposals. An incomplete
list:

(a) It appears that some nonlocality must be involved in order

for the radiation carries away information. String theoy
has some nonlocality built in.

(b)

Strikingly similar to D-branes.

(c) Susskind-Horowitz-Polchinski correspondence principle

For a massive string

oscillation level

So

But for a bh
Horowitz-Polchinski suggested (post-D-brane)
that in order to form a bh, G must be tuned on.
But in 4D:

or

for

The correspondence point: for we

have string and for we have a bh.
Schematically

lng
BH phase

String phase

lnN
Phase transition line?
3. Black holes in string theory-D-brane age

3.1 Near extremal black D-branes

The pure D-brane solution

There is no entropy on the pure branes.

Exciting the branes

hot gas
Near extremal black brane

Thus

At the horizon

Horizon area =
Specified to p=3
is independent of

Counting the entropy of a free Yang-Mills gas,

one finds

The discrepancy is due to the large effective

coupling on the black brane:
p=3 is called non-dilaton black brane, since

In general

For 6>p>3, theories are sufficient complex.

For p=2, not much research exists

For p=1, Hashimoto-Izthaki

For p=0, ML
3.2 Extremal black holes (branes)

Strominger-Vafa

A black hole in 5D

T5: D5-branes

waves

D1-branes T4
Physical picture:

D5-D1 open strings

species

The classical solutions

and other gauge fields, where

The horizon volume

fixed at r=0 expands at r=0
To compute entropy, we also need

So

Exact result:

Thus the # of states is

Microscopic origin:

A 1D gas of open strings

In the weak coupling limit:

For a boson or a fermion:

The exact formula (Cardy) is

For a boson c=1, for a fermion c=1/2. For the

system of the D1-D5 strings
This result is valid even in case of the large :

by extrapolating BPS states.

Further develoments:

(a) 4 charged BH in 4D.

(b) Near extremal BH by adding left moving

modes.

(c) Hawking radiation.

The idea of Hawking radiation viewed in D-
brane picture is simple:

D-brane calculation reproduces Hawkings

formula (Das-Mathur)
(d) Grey-body factor

. .
Potential due to the background

Maldacena-Strominger, complete agreement.

Are there magic nonrenormalization theorem?

Maldacea conjecture:

The supergravity (or string theory) is dual to

the CFT on the branes. The fact that the near
horizon geometry is AdS is the initial strong
motivation for this conjecture.

In the D1-D5 case

Need large to have semi-classical
Geometry:

Need small :

Another much-studied case is D3-branes,

AdS5XS5:
4. Beyond D-branes

4.1 Horowitz-Polchinskis correspondence

Curvature ~

String states
or brane states BHs

Entropy matches ~ O(1) coefficient.

No need of D-brane charges.

4.2 Matrix BH


.

boost Gas of D0-branes

Qualitatively understood:

Banks et al., Horowitz-Martinec, ML,

ML&Martinec

But in order to compute exact coefficient, need to

solve many body problem accurately.
4.3 AdS

Can study near extremal BH only ( c>0 ).

But provides an opportunity to study
formation and evaporation of BH accurately.
One may also study singularity.

Technically unlikely to be solved in the near

future.

Both 4.2 and 4.3 are under the influence of D-

branes.
5. BH problem is unsolved

(a) Counting entropy for Schwarzschild BH

honestly, accurately.

(b) Dynamic process of formation of BH in D-

brane picture or AdS/CFT , information puzzle

(c) Counting entropy for near-extremal BH

accurately for p<3.

(d) For p=3, understand .

(e) Prove the existence of gas BH phase
transition.

(d) Matrix BH need to be studied further