Related papers: The string string theorists forgot to notice
The theory of relativistic strings is considered in frames of Hamiltonian formalism and Dirac's quantization procedure. A special gauge fixing condition is formulated, related with the world sheet of the string in Lorentz-invariant way. As…
In string theory the coupling ``constants'' appearing in the low-energy effective Lagrangian are determined by the vacuum expectation values of some (a priori) massless scalar fields (dilaton, moduli). This naturally leads one to expect a…
String theory avoids the ultraviolet infinities that arise in trying to quantize gravity. It is also more predictive than conventional quantum field theory, one aspect of this being the way that it contributed to the emergence of the…
Nonperturbative effects in string theory are usually associated to D-branes. In many cases it can be explicitly shown that D-brane instantons control the large-order behavior of string perturbation theory, leading to the well-known (2g)!…
This presentation is intended to give a flavour of the physics to be studied and discovered by exploiting the interface between string theory, M-theory and field theory provided by the dynamics of extended objects called `branes', and their…
The Brownian motion of a number of quantum states in a compact one-dimensional space is studied via the Wiener fractal measure, and it is shown that the derived path-integral measure coincides precisely with the Polyakov path-integral…
This paper analyzes the effective field theory perspective on modern physics through the lens of the quantum theory of gravitational interaction. The historical part argues that the search for a theory of quantum gravity stimulated the…
A polemical article evaluating string theory from the point of view of a quantum field theorist working in a mathematics department. Comments to the author are encouraged.
We consider a simple string model to explain and partly demystify the phenomenon of quantum entanglement. The model in question has nothing to do with string theory: it uses macroscopic strings that can be acted upon by Alice and Bob in…
This is an introduction to some recent developments in string theory and M theory. We try to concentrate on the main physical aspects, and often leave more technical details to the original literature.
The String Uncertainty Relations have been known for some time as the stringy corrections to the original Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle. In this letter the Stringy Uncertainty relations, and corrections thereof, are explicitly derived…
This lecture presents a brief overview of the early history of string theory and supersymmetry. It describes how the S-matrix theory program for understanding the strong nuclear force evolved into superstring theory, which is a promising…
The emergence of a critical dimension is one of the most striking features of string theory. One way to obtain it is by demanding closure of the Lorentz algebra in the light-cone gauge quantisation, as discovered for bosonic strings more…
These are the lecture notes of the introductory String Theory course held by one of the authors for the master program of Theoretical Physics at Turin University. The world-sheet approach to String Theory is pedagogically introduced in the…
A quantum equivalence principle is formulated by means of a gravitational phase operator which is an element of the Poincare group. This is applied to the spinning cosmic string which suggests that it may, but not necessarily, contain…
The first part of this report gives a very quick sketch of how string theory concepts originated and evolved during its first 25 years (1968-93). The second part presents a somewhat more detailed discussion of the highlights of the past…
In presence of a static pair of sources, the spectrum of low-lying states of any confining gauge theory in D space-time dimensions is described, at large source separations, by an effective string theory. Recently two important advances…
For a long time, people believe that all possible states of matter are described by Landau symmetry-breaking theory. Recently we find that string-net condensation provide a mechanism to produce states of matter beyond the symmetry-breaking…
A novel notion of unpredictable strings is revealed and utilized to define deterministic unpredictable sequences on a finite number of symbols. We prove the first law of large strings for random processes in discrete time, which confirms…
In this paper we present the null string origin of the ambitwistor string. Classically, the null string is the tensionless limit of string theory, and so too is the Ambitwistor string. Both have as constraint algebra the Galilean Conformal…