Related papers: Duality, Superstrings and M-theory
Some mysterious features of the strong interactions become easily understood if our usual QCD with N=3 is `close to' SU(oo) and if the latter theory is confining. N=oo theories are theoretically simpler; in particular there has been much…
These lectures give an introduction to duality in Quantum Field Theory. We discuss the phases of gauge theories and the implications of the electric-magnetic duality transformation to describe the mechanism of confinement. We review the…
In the presence of a static quark--antiquark pair, the spectrum of the low-lying states in SU($N$) gauge theories is discrete and likely to be described, at large quark separations $r$, by an effective string theory. The expansion of the…
String theory is the leading candidate for a unified theory of the standard model and gravity. In the last few years theorists have realized that there is a unique structure underlying string theory. In this unification a prominent role is…
N=2 heterotic strings may provide a window into the physics of M-theory radically different than that found via the other supersymmetric string theories. In addition to their supersymmetric structure, these strings carry a four-dimensional…
Despite the lack of experimental confirmation and of unambiguous theoretical proof, superstring theory has long been considered by many the only consistent quantized theory of gravity and the unique viable framework for the unification of…
The string breaking phenomenon in QCD can be studied using the gauge/string duality. In this approach, one can make estimates of some of the string breaking distances at non-zero temperature and baryon chemical potential. These point…
We introduce simple and more advanced concepts that have played a key role in the development of supersymmetric systems. This is done by first describing various supersymmetric quantum mechanics models. Topics covered include the basic…
We review a selection of recent developments in the application of ideas of string theory to heavy ion physics. Our topics divide naturally into equilibrium and non-equilibrium phenomena. On the non-equilibrium side, we discuss…
Montonen and Olive's conjecture in 1977 that some theories possess a duality symmetry that interchanges the electrically charged particle with that of negatively charged t' Hooft-Polyakov monopoles which relates strong coupling to weak…
Recent measurements of the values of gauge coupling constants as well as neutrino properties support the idea of a grand unified (GUT) description of particle physics at a large scale of $M_{GUT}\sim 10^{16}$ GeV. We discuss a strategy to…
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…
The best candidate for a fundamental unified theory of all physical phenomena is no longer ten-dimensional superstring theory but rather eleven-dimensional {\it M-theory}. In the words of Fields medalist Edward Witten, ``M stands for…
We derive the universal threshold corrections in heterotic string theory including a continuous Wilson line. Unification of gauge and gravitational couplings is shown to be possible even within perturbative string theory. The relative…
Superstring theory is one current, promising attempt at unifying gravity with the other three known forces: the electromagnetic force, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Though this is still a work in progress, much effort has been put…
In a recent paper, Polchinski and Strassler found a string theory dual of a gauge theory with reduced supersymmetry. Motivated by their approach, we perturb the $\N=8$ theory living on a set of N M2 branes to $\N=2$, by adding fermion mass…
In this paper we make further refinements to the duality proposed between N=1 SQCD and certain string (supergravity plus branes) backgrounds, working in the regime of comparable large number of colors and flavors. Using the string theory…
Some recent developments in the weakly-coupled heterotic string phenomenology are reviewed. We discuss several important issues such as dilaton/moduli stabilization, supersymmetry breaking (by hidden-sector gaugino condensation), gauge…
We extend spacetime duality to superspace, including fermions in the low-energy limits of superstrings. The tangent space is a curved, extended superspace. The geometry is based on an enlarged coordinate space where the vanishing of the…
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…