Related papers: M-theory and the string genus expansion
The strongly coupled limit of string scattering and the automorphic construction of the graviton S-matrix is compared with the eleven dimensional formulation of M-theory. In a particular scaling limit at strong string coupling, M-theory is…
I present arguments to the affect that the topological phase of string theory must be event-symmetric. This motivates a search for a universal string group for discrete strings in event-symmetric space-time which unifies space-time symmetry…
We study a theory of particles interacting with strings. Considering such a theory for Type IIA superstring will give some clue about M-theory. As a first step toward such a theory, we construct the particle-particle-string interaction…
We discuss the relation between M theory and type II string theories. We show that, assuming ``natural'' interactions between membranes and fivebranes in M theory, the known interactions between strings and D-branes in type II string…
The dissertation consists of two parts. The first presents an account of the effective worldvolume description of $N$ coincident M2-branes ending on an M5-brane in M-theory. It reviews Basu and Harvey's recent description of the worldvolume…
The divergences that arise in the regularized partition function for closed bosonic string theory in flat space lead to three types of perturbation series expansions, distinguished by their genus dependence. This classification of…
This is the text of my habilitation thesis defended at the \'Ecole Normale Sup\'erieure. The topological string presents an arena in which many features of string theory proper, such as the interplay between worldsheet and target space…
I discuss cosmological models either derived from, or inspired by, string theory or M-theory. In particular I discuss solutions in the low-energy effective theory and the role of the dilaton, moduli and antisymmetric form fields in the…
The dilaton theorem implies that the contribution to the dilaton potential from cubic interactions of all levels must be cancelled by the elementary quartic self-coupling of dilatons. We use this expectation to test the quartic structure of…
The Heterotic twistor string theory of Mason and Skinner is investigated with particular attention given to the role of topological gravity on the world-sheet. The general structure of scattering amplitudes is discussed and expressed in…
Under the six-dimensional heterotic/type $IIA$ duality map, a solitonic membrane solution of heterotic string theory transforms into a singular solution of type $IIA$ theory, and should therefore be interpreted as a fundamental membrane in…
The solution term by term to the scattering of all consistent string theories is given. The moduli space of M-theory is derived and connects the various string theories. The solutions contain both the perturbative and non-perturbative…
We consider M-theory in the presence of M parallel M5-branes probing a transverse A_{N-1} singularity. This leads to a superconformal theory with (1,0) supersymmetry in six dimensions. We compute the supersymmetric partition function of…
`Old' String Theory is a theory of one-dimensional extended objects, whose vibrations correspond to excitations of various target-space field modes including gravity. In these lectures I will give an introduction to low-energy Effective…
The physical motivations and the basic construction rules for Type I strings and M-theory compactifications are reviewed in light of the recent developments. The first part contains the basic theoretical ingredients needed for building…
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…
We formulate a theory of topological membranes on manifolds with G_2 holonomy. The BRST charges of the theories are the superspace Killing vectors (the generators of global supersymmetry) on the background with reduced holonomy G_2. In the…
We study classical dynamics of cylindrical membranes wrapped around the extra compact dimension of a $(D+1)$-dimensional Riemann-Cartan spacetime. The world-sheet equations and boundary conditions are obtained from the universally valid…
BPS saturated p-branes play an important role in recent progress in understanding superstring theory and M theory. One approach to understanding the dynamics of p-branes is to formulate an effective (p+1)-dimensional world-volume theory.…
In recent years there has been some progress in understanding how one might model the interactions of branes in M-theory despite not having a fundamental perturbative description. The goal of this review is to describe different approaches…