General Prerequisites: Quantum Field Theory (MT)
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.