General
Main content blocks
- Lecturer: Profile: Xenia De La Ossa
Course information
General prerequisites:
Quantum Field Theory (MT)
Course term: Hilary
Course lecture information: 16 lectures
Course weight: 1
Course overview:
1 unit
16 lectures
Areas: PT
Sequels: String Theory II (TT)
Lecturer: Prof Xenia de la Ossa
Method of Assessment: Mini Project only, HT.
16 lectures
Areas: PT
Sequels: String Theory II (TT)
Lecturer: Prof Xenia de la Ossa
Method of Assessment: Mini Project only, HT.
Course synopsis:
Historical background, Dolen-Horn-Schmid duality, the 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. Basic considerations 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.
Section outline
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Lectures: Wed 2-3 pm (room L5 AWB)
Thursday 1-2 pm (room L1 AWB Week 1; room L5 AWB Week 2-8)
Classes:
Class 1:
Tutor: Alison Warman
Markers: Eleonora Svanberg (2/3), Alexander Goodenbour (1/3)
Weeks 4,6,8 Tuesday 10-12, room C6 Hand in by date: previous Friday by 12noon
Class 2:
Tutor: Xenia de la Ossa
TA: Yuhan Gai (marking 2/3 of the scripts)
Marker: Alexander Goodenbour (1/3 of the scripts)
Weeks 4, 6 Monday 10-12, room C6, Hand in by date: previous Thursday by 5pm
Week 8 Friday 11-13, room C3, Hand in by date: previous Tuesday by 12 noon
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Notes available online:
- D. Tong, "String Theory", https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/string.html
- T. Weigand, “Introduction to String Theory”, https://www.thphys.uni-heidelberg.de/courses/weigand/Strings11-12.pdf
- A. Uranga, “Graduate Course in String Theory”, https://members.ift.uam-csic.es/auranga/firstpage.html
Further references:
- R. Blumenhagen, D. Lüst, S. Theisen, “Basic Concepts of String Theory”
- M. Green, J. Schwarz, E. Witten, “Superstring Theory” (Vol. I)
- J. Polchinski, “String Theory” (Vol. I)
- B. Zwiebach, “A First Course in String Theory”
- D. Tong, "String Theory", https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/string.html