Related papers: Strings, gravity and particle physics
This essay presents a critical evaluation of the concepts of string theory and its impact on particle physics. The point of departure is a historical review of four decades of string theory within the broader context of six decades of…
The strong coupling limit of a quantum system is in general quite complicated, but in some cases a great simplification occurs: the strongly coupled limit is equivalent to the weakly coupled limit of some other system. In string theory…
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…
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.
After briefly reviewing basic concepts of perturbative string theory, we explain in simple terms some of the new findings that created excitement among the string physicists. These developments include non-perturbative dualities and a…
Analysis of string interactions indicates a weakening of gravity at the string length scale, thus avoiding black holes and their singularities.
Two popular attempts to understand the quantum physics of gravitation are critically assessed. The talk on which this paper is based was intended for a general particle-physics audience.
The goal of this article is to present a broad perspective on quantum gravity for \emph{non-experts}. After a historical introduction, key physical problems of quantum gravity are illustrated. While there are a number of interesting and…
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…
I briefly summarize a recent research program aiming to probe the landscape of low-energy phases of string theory from a global perspective. Borrowing conceptual lessons from the swampland program, I will discuss how the effective theories…
String theory is accused by some of its critics to be a purely abstract mathematical discipline, having lost the contact to the simple yet deeply rooted questions which physics provided until the beginning of this century. We argue that, in…
In this note we give a summary of [arXiv:2401.14449] in which we proposed a proof of the weak gravity conjecture in perturbative string theory. While the WGC is well established, checked in many examples, and many of the ingredients we use…
I review the present theoretical attempts to understand the quantum properties of spacetime. In particular, I illustrate the main achievements and the main difficulties in: string theory, loop quantum gravity, discrete quantum gravity…
These four lectures, addressed to an audience of graduate students in experimental high energy physics, survey some of the basic concepts in string theory. The purpose is to convey a general sense of what string theory is and what it has…
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.
I discuss the early developments of string theory with respect to its connection with gauge theory and general relativity from my own perspective. The period covered is mainly from 1969 to 1974, during which I became involved in research on…
We reformulate two dimensional string-inspired gravity with point particles as a gauge theory of the extended Poincar\'e group. A non-minimal gauge coupling is necessary for the equivalence of the two descriptions. The classical…
String theory implies a relatively modest growth in computational complexity for perturbative gravity calculations as compared to gauge theory calculations, contrary to field theory expectations. An explicit string-based calculation, which…
This is an editorial summary of the contents of a Book comprising a set of Articles by acknowledged experts dealing with the impact of Field Theory on major areas of physics (from elementary particles through condensed matter to strings),…
This essay presents a critical evaluation of the concepts of string theory and its impact on particle physics. The point of departure is a historical review of four decades of ST within the broader context of six decades of failed attempts…