Related papers: The Large N Harmonic Oscillator as a String Theory
We discuss different formulations and approaches to string theory and $ 2d$ quantum gravity. The generic idea to get a unique description of {\it many} different string vacua altogether is demonstrated on the examples in $ 2d$ conformal,…
String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1) Open/closed string duality, and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored…
A theory of closed bosonic string in time-like gauge, related in Lorentz-invariant way with the world sheet, is considered. Absence of quantum anomalies in this theory is shown.
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…
Open string theories can be decoupled from closed strings and gravity by scaling to the critical electric field. We propose dual descriptions for the strong coupling limit of these NCOS (Non-Commutative Open String) theories in six or fewer…
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.
Anomalous U(1) gauge symmetries can appear both in heterotic and type I string theories. In the heterotic case we find a single anomalous U(1), while in open string theories several such symmetries can appear. Nonetheless, there is a…
We investigate the connections between four-dimensional, N=2 M-theory vacua constructed as orbifolds of type II, heterotic, and type I strings. All these models have the same massless spectrum, which contains an equal number of vector…
We review electric/magnetic duality in $N=4$ (and certain $N=2$) globally supersymmetric gauge theories and show how this duality, which relates strong to weak coupling, follows as a consequence of a string/string duality. Black holes,…
We present a string theory that reproduces the large-$N$ expansion of two dimensional Yang-Mills gauge theory on arbitrary surfaces. First, a new class of topological sigma models is introduced, with path integrals localized to the moduli…
We study open and closed string interactions in the Type IIB plane wave background using open+closed string field theory. We reproduce all string amplitudes from the dual N=2 Sp(N) gauge theory by computing matrix elements of the dilatation…
Ideas about a duality between gauge fields and strings have been around for many decades. During the last ten years, these ideas have taken a much more concrete mathematical form. String descriptions of the strongly coupled dynamics of…
Returning to an old idea of a certain two-particle relativistic harmonic oscillator as an underlying mechanical model for higher spin gauge fields, various space-time pictures are discussed for the propagation and the interactions.
In this paper we show that the holomorphic representation is appropriate for description in a consistent way string and string field theories, when the considered number of component fields of the string field is finite. A new Lagrangian…
The heterotic string theory, compactified to four dimensions, has been conjectured to have a duality symmetry (S duality) that transforms the dilaton nonlinearly. If valid, this symmetry could provide an important means of obtaining…
We present a simple physical representation for states of the two-dimensional string theory. In order to incorporate a fundamental cutoff of the order 1/g we use a picture consisting of q-oscillators at the first-quantized level. In this…
A string background, which is in some precise sense {\em universal} (i.e., incorporating all orders in the Feynman diagram expansion), is proposed to represent pure gauge theories. S-duality at the level of the string metric is considered…
After a review of some topics concerning the phenomenological applications of perturbative string theory, I discuss to what extent all of it is affected by the recent developements in string dualities.
We collect further evidence for the proposed duality between $N=2$ heterotic and type II string vacua in a specific model suggested by Kachru and Vafa. In the gauge sector the previous analysis is extended; it is further shown that the…
I summarise what recent lattice calculations tell us about the large-N limit of SU(N) gauge theories in 3+1 dimensions. The focus is on confinement, how close SU(oo) is to SU(3), new stable strings at larger N, deconfinement, topology and…