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: Invigilated Written Exam
16 lectures
Areas: PT
Sequels: String Theory II (TT)
Lecturer: Prof Xenia de la Ossa
Method of Assessment: Invigilated Written Exam
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: Wednesday 4-5pm (room L5 AWB)
Thursday 12-1pm (room L1 AWB)
Classes:
Class 1: Tuesday 10-12, Week 4, 6, 8, Room C5
Tutor: Alison Warman
TA: Catherine Notman
Markers: Catherine Notman, Oskar Wodjel
Hand in by date: 10am Thursdays before each class
Class 2: Thursday 9-11, Week 4, 6, 8, Room C5
Tutor: Yuhan Gai
TA: Alex Goodenbour
Marker: Alex Goodenbour, Oskar Wodjel
Hand in by date: 10am Monday before each class
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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