General prerequisites:

Quantum Field Theory (MT)

Course term: Hilary
Course weight: 1
Course overview:

Areas: PT
Sequels: String Theory II (TT), Introduction to Gauge-String Duality (TT)

Lecturer(s):

Prof. Christopher Beem

Assessment Type:

Mini Project

Course synopsis:

Historical background for string theory, Dolan-Horn-Schmid duality, Veneziano and Virasoro-Shapiro amplitudes. Nambu-Goto and Polyakov world-sheet actions, equations of motion and constraints, open and closed strings and their corresponding boundary conditions. Old covariant quantization: the Virasoro algebra, physical state conditions, ghosts, critical spacetime dimension, and spacetime particle spectrum. Basics of light-cone gauge quantization. Vertex operators and string scattering amplitudes. Strings in background fields, spacetime effective action. Circle compactification, elementary consideration of D-branes, T-duality.