Related papers: Big Bang Models in String Theory
The topic of cosmic strings provides a bridge between the physics of the very small and the very large. They are predicted by some unified theories of particle interactions. If they exist, they may help to explain some of the largest-scale…
This is a short arrangement of notes on D-branes, offered as an embellishment of five lectures which were presented at the 1998 Trieste Spring School entitled ``Non-Perturbative Aspects of String Theory and Supersymmetric Gauge Theory''.…
The dynamics of superstring, supergravity and M theories and their compactifications are probed by studying the various perturbation theories that emerge in the strong and weak coupling limits for various directions in coupling constant…
We review basic theoretical concepts to describe nuclear collisions at ultrarelativistic energies. We discuss relativistic strings, Gribov--Regge theory (GRT) of hadronic interactions and string models based on GRT, and finally…
In this lecture we address the following issues in the context of string theories: i) The role played by S and T dualities in obtaining topological inflation in N=1 supergravity models, ii) A mechanism to generate the baryon asymmetry of…
In these lectures we review how some of the recent developments in string theory are closely related to generic properties of supersymmetry. Lectures given at the Nato Advanced Study Institute on "Strings, Branes and Dualities", Cargese,…
An overview is given of the way in which the unification program of particle physics has evolved into the proposal of superstring theory as a prime candidate for unifying quantum gravity with the other forces and particles of nature. A key…
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…
We present a short introduction to a non-standard cosmological scenario motivated by the duality symmetries of string theory, in which the big bang singularity is replaced with a "big bounce" at high but finite curvature. The bouncing epoch…
In these lecture notes, an introduction to superstring theory is presented. Classical strings, covariant and light-cone quantization, supersymmetric strings, anomaly cancelation, compactification, T-duality, supersymmetry breaking, and…
Progress on string theory in curved spacetimes since 1992 are reviewed. After a short introduction on strings in Minkowski and curved spacetimes, we focus on strings in cosmological spacetimes. The classical behaviour of strings in FRW and…
I review how traditional grand unified theories, which require adjoint (or higher representation) Higgs fields for breaking to the standard model, can be contained within string theory. The status (as of January 1996) of the search for…
Some gauge theories with Coulomb branches exhibit singularities in perturbation theory, which are usually resolved by nonperturbative physics. In string theory this corresponds to the resolution of timelike singularities near the core of…
The goal of these lectures is to present an informal but precise introduction to a body of concepts and methods of interest in number theory and string theory revolving around modular forms and their generalizations. Modular invariance lies…
This is a set of lectures on the gauge/string duality and non-critical strings, with a particular emphasis on the discretized, or matrix model, approach. After a general discussion of various points of view, I describe the recent…
String theory avoids the ultraviolet infinities that arise in trying to quantize gravity. It is also more predictive than conventional quantum field theory, one aspect of this being the way that it contributed to the emergence of the…
We study the origins of the five ten-dimensional ``matrix superstring'' theories, supplementing old results with new ones, and find that they all fit into a unified framework. In all cases the matrix definition of the string in the limit of…
In this paper the relationship between the classical description of the resolution of quotient singularities and the string picture is reviewed in the context of N=(2,2) superconformal field theories. A method for the analysis of quotients…
We show that a class of 3+1 dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies can be embedded within a variety of solutions of string theory. In some realizations the apparent singularities associated with the big bang or big crunch are…
These are notes of a series of lectures on mirror symmetry and topological string theory given at the Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University. The N=2 superconformal algebra, its deformations and its chiral ring are reviewed. A…