Related papers: From Superstrings to M Theory
This talk is divided into two parts. The first part reviews some of the duality relationships between superstring theories. These relationships are interpreted as providing evidence for the existence of a unique underlying fundamental…
An introductory survey of some of the developments that have taken place in superstring theory in the past few years is presented. The main focus is on three particular dualities. The first one is the appearance of an 11th dimension in the…
These lectures begin by reviewing the evidence for S duality of the toroidally compactified heterotic string in 4d that was obtained in the period 1992--94. Next they review recently discovered dualities that relate all five of the 10d…
In the strong coupling limit type IIA superstring theory develops an eleventh dimension that is not apparent in perturbation theory. This suggests the existence of a consistent 11d quantum theory, called M theory, which is approximated by…
Synopsis: (i) how superstring theories are unified by M-theory; (ii) how superstring and supermembrane properties follow from the D=10 and D=11 supersymmetry algebras; (iii) how D=10 and D=11 supergravity theories determine the strong…
I describe our understanding of physics near the planck length, in particular the great progress of the last four years in string theory. Superstring theory, and a recent extension called M theory, are leading candidates for a quantum…
A proposed duality between type IIB superstring theory on R^9 X S^1 and a conjectured 11D fundamental theory (``M theory'') on R^9 X T^2 is investigated. Simple heuristic reasoning leads to a consistent picture relating the various p-branes…
Recent developments in superstring theory have led to major advances in understanding. After reviewing where things stood earlier, we sketch the impact of recently identified dualities and D-branes, as well as a hidden eleventh dimension.
We briefly review superstring theories, highlighting the important concepts, developments, and open problems of the subject.
Some relationships between string theories and eleven-dimensional supergravity are discussed and reviewed. We see how some relationships can be derived from others. The cases of N=2 supersymmetry in nine dimensions and N=4 supersymmetry in…
The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…
These lectures explore what can be learnt about M-theory from its superalgebra. The first three lectures introduce the 'basic' branes of M-theory, and type II superstring theories, and show how the duality relations between them are encoded…
Special solutions of string theory in supercritical dimensions can interpolate in time between theories with different numbers of spacetime dimensions (via dimension quenching) and different amounts of worldsheet supersymmetry (via…
Superunification underwent a major paradigm shift in 1984 when eleven-dimensional supergravity was knocked off its pedestal by ten-dimensional superstrings. This last year has witnessed a new shift of equal proportions: perturbative…
We investigate strings theories as defined from four dimensional gauge theories. It is argued that novel (super)string theories exist up to 26 dimensions. Some of them may support weakly curved geometries.
I suggest the possibility of a new string in ten dimensions. Evidence for this string is presented both from orientifold physics and from K-theory, along with a mystery concerning the M-theory description. Motivated by this possibility,…
Recent developments in string and M theory rely heavily on supersymmetry suggesting that a revival of superspace techniques in ten and eleven dimensions may be advantageous. Here we discuss three topics of current interest where superspace…
We review the evidence for the various dualities amongst the five D=10 superstring theories and for the existence of M-theory using the associated effective supergravity theories. We also summarise the combinatorial technics developed for…
The issue of justifying the matrix-theory proposal is revisited. We first discuss how the matrix-string theory is derived directly starting from the eleven dimensional supermembrane wrapped around a circle of radius $R=g_s\ell_s$, without…
In discussing the construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity unified with the gauge interactions we are naturally led to a string theory. We review its properties and the five consistent supersymmetric string theories in ten…