Related papers: From Quarks to Strings
During the last ten years, intriguing dualities between gauge and string theory have been found and explored. They provide a novel window on strongly coupled gauge physics, including QCD-like models. Based on a short historical review of…
String theory has been the dominating research field in theoretical physics during the last decades. Despite the considerable time elapse, no new testable predictions have been derived by string theorists and it is understandable that…
The brief review of the duality between gauge theories and closed strings propagating in the curved space is based on the lectures given at ITEP Winter School - 2005
In this review I discuss some basic aspects of non-perturbative string theory. The topics include test of duality symmetries based on the analysis of the low energy effective action and the spectrum of BPS states, relationship between…
These lectures intend to give a pedagogical introduction into some of the developments in string theory during the last years. They include perturbative T-duality and non perturbative S- and U-dualities, their unavoidable demand for…
This contribution, aimed mostly at experimental particle physicists, reviews some of the main ideas and results of String Theory in a non-technical language. It originates from the talks presented by the authors at the Electro-Weak session…
We consider string theory in a time dependent orbifold with a null singularity. The singularity separates a contracting universe from an expanding universe, thus constituting a big crunch followed by a big bang. We quantize the theory both…
This is the written version of a short talk given at the University of Leipzig in December 1998. It reviews some general aspects of string theory from the viewpoint of the search for an unifying theory. Here, special emphasis lies on the…
In this set of lectures I review recent developments in string theory emphasizing their non-perturbative aspects and their recently discovered duality symmetries. The goal of the lectures is to make the recent exciting developments in…
We will report on recent advances in the understanding of non-perturbative interconnections between different string dualities. Weak-strong coupling duality (S-duality) and T-duality (symmetry under compactification on dual tori) allows one…
We review some recent developments in string theory, emphasizing the importance of vacuum instabilities, their relation to the density of states, and the role of space-time fermions in non-critical string theory. We also discuss the…
The first part is an introduction to conformal field theory and string perturbation theory. The second part deals with the search for a deeper answer to the question posed in the title. Contents: 1. Conformal Field Theory 2. String Theory…
I describe Field/String duality as applied to the response of gauge fields to separated quark and antiquark sources. This is a talk contributed to the conference Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum VII, Ponta Delgada, Azores, 2-7…
This is a broad-brush review of how string theory addresses several important questions of gravitational physics. The problem of non-renormalizability is first reviewed, followed by introduction of string theory as an ultraviolet-finite…
We try to draw lessons for higher dimensions from the string representations recently derived for large $N$ Yang-Mills theory by Gross and Taylor, Kostov, and others, and call attention to three characteristics that should be expected of a…
The first quantum string theories were developed around 1970, prior to the discovery of QCD, with the goal of producing a theory of hadrons. Basic physical requirements and mathematical consistency of the string theories known at that time…
String theory developed by demanding consistency with quantum mechanics. In this paper we wish to reverse the reasoning. We pretend open string field theory is a fully consistent definition of the theory - it is at least a self consistent…
What are strings made of? The possibility is discussed that strings are purely mathematical objects, made of logical axioms. More precisely, proofs in simple logical calculi are represented by graphs that can be interpreted as the Feynman…
String theory and supersymmetry are theoretical ideas that go beyond the standard model of particle physics and show promise for unifying all forces. After a brief introduction to supersymmetry, we discuss the prospects for its experimental…
Using a classical action associated to a point-particle in (1+1)-dimensions the classical string theory is derived. In connection with this result two aspects are clarified: First, the point particle in (1+1)-dimensions is not an ordinary…