Related papers: An Invitation to String Theory
This contribution, aimed mostly at experimental particle physicists, reviews some of the main ideas and results of String Theory in a non-technical language. It originates from the talks presented by the authors at the Electro-Weak session…
We look at the various aspects of treating general relativity as a quantum theory. It is briefly studied how to consistently quantize general relativity as an effective field theory. A key achievement here is the long-range low-energy…
In the present paper we consider quantum theories obtained by quantization of classical theories with first-class constraints assuming that these constraints form a Lie algebra. We show that in this case, one can construct physical…
This is a one semester course on bosonic string theory aimed at beginning graduate students. The lectures assume a working knowledge of quantum field theory and general relativity. Contents: 1. The Classical String 2. The Quantum String 3.…
String theory is at the moment the only advanced approach to a unification of all interactions, including gravity. But, in spite of the more than thirty years of its existence, it does not make any empirically testable predictions, and it…
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 notes on string theory are based on a series of talks I gave during my graduate studies. As the talks, this introductory essay is intended for young students and non-string theory physicists.
String theory is arguably the best candidate for a theory of quantum gravity and unified interactions. Reconciling Einstein's theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics. The theory however is best understood on Minkowski and…
This is the written version of a short talk given at the University of Leipzig in December 1998. It reviews some general aspects of string theory from the viewpoint of the search for an unifying theory. Here, special emphasis lies on the…
It is shown that the string concept results naturally from considerations of gravitation. This paper describes a derivation of linearized general relativity based upon the hypotheses of special covariance and the existence of a…
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…
A candidate theory of gravity quantized is reviewed.
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,…
A brief review of aspects of gravity gauge theory correspondance inspired by string theory is presented.
String theory is the leading contemporary framework to explore the synthesis of quantum mechanics with gravity. String phenomenology aims to study string theory while maintaining contact with observational data. The fermionic $Z_2\times…
A pedagogical introduction to some of the main ideas and results of field theories on quantized spacetimes is presented, with emphasis on what such field theories may teach us about the problem of quantizing gravity. We examine to what…
String theory, as a theory containing quantum gravity, is usually thought to require more dimensions of spacetime than the usual 3+1. Here I argue on physical grounds that needing extra dimensions for strings may well be an artefact of…
String field theory is a candidate for a full non-perturbative definition of string theory. We aim to define string field theory on a space-time lattice to investigate its behaviour at the quantum level. Specifically, we look at string…
Quantizing the gravitational field described by General relativity being a notorious difficult, unsolved and maybe meaningless problem I use in this essay a different strategy: I consider a linear theory in the framework of Special…
We formulate the string field theory in zero-dimensional target space corresponding to the two-dimensional quantum gravity theory defined through Causal Dynamical Triangulations. This third quantization of the quantum gravity theory allows…