Foreword by David Gross page xiii
         From the Preface to the First Edition xv
         Preface to the Second Edition xix
         Part I Basics 1
         1 A brief introduction 3
         1.1 The road to unification 3
         1.2 String theory as a unified theory of physics 6
         1.3 String theory and its verification 9
         1.4 Developments and outlook 11
         2 Special relativity and extra dimensions 13
         2.1 Units and parameters 13
         2.2 Intervals and Lorentz transformations 15
         2.3 Light-cone coordinates 22
         2.4 Relativistic energy and momentum 26
         2.5 Light-cone energy and momentum 28
         2.6 Lorentz invariance with extra dimensions 30
         2.7 Compact extra dimensions 31
         2.8 Orbifolds 35
         2.9 Quantum mechanics and the square well 36
         2.10 Square well with an extra dimension 38
         3 Electromagnetism and gravitation in various dimensions 45
         3.1 Classical electrodynamics 45
         3.2 Electromagnetism in three dimensions 47
         3.3 Manifestly relativistic electrodynamics 48
         3.4 An aside on spheres in higher dimensions 52
         3.5 Electric fields in higher dimensions 55
         3.6 Gravitation and Planck’s length 58
         3.7 Gravitational potentials 62
         3.8 The Planck length in various dimensions 63
         3.9 Gravitational constants and compactification 64
         3.10 Large extra dimensions 67
         4 Nonrelativistic strings 73
         4.1 Equations of motion for transverse oscillations 73
         4.2 Boundary conditions and initial conditions 75
         4.3 Frequencies of transverse oscillation 76
         4.4 More general oscillating strings 77
         4.5 A brief review of Lagrangian mechanics 78
         4.6 The nonrelativistic string Lagrangian 81
         5 The relativistic point particle 89
         5.1 Action for a relativistic point particle 89
         5.2 Reparameterization invariance 93
         5.3 Equations of motion 94
         5.4 Relativistic particle with electric charge 97
         6 Relativistic strings 100
         6.1 Area functional for spatial surfaces 100
         6.2 Reparameterization invariance of the area 103
         6.3 Area functional for spacetime surfaces 106
         6.4 The Nambu-Goto string action 111
         6.5 Equations of motion, boundary conditions, and D-branes 112
         6.6 The static gauge 116
         6.7 Tension and energy of a stretched string 118
         6.8 Action in terms of transverse velocity 120
         6.9 Motion of open string endpoints 124
         7 String parameterization and classical motion 130
         7.1 Choosing a σ parameterization 130
         7.2 Physical interpretation of the string equation of motion 132
         7.3 Wave equation and constraints 134
         7.4 General motion of an open string 136
         7.5 Motion of closed strings and cusps 142
         7.6 Cosmic strings 145
         8 World-sheet currents 154
         8.1 Electric charge conservation 154
         8.2 Conserved charges from Lagrangian symmetries 155
         8.3 Conserved currents on the world-sheet 159
         8.4 The complete momentum current 161
         8.5 Lorentz symmetry and associated currents 165
         8.6 The slope parameter α 168
         9 Light-cone relativistic strings 175
         9.1 A class of choices for τ 175
         9.2 The associated σ parameterization 178
         9.3 Constraints and wave equations 182
         9.4 Wave equation and mode expansions 183
         9.5 Light-cone solution of equations of motion 186
         10 Light-cone fields and particles 194
         10.1 Introduction 194
         10.2 An action for scalar fields 195
         10.3 Classical plane-wave solutions 197
         10.4 Quantum scalar fields and particle states 200
         10.5 Maxwell fields and photon states 206
         10.6 Gravitational fields and graviton states 209
         11 The relativistic quantum point particle 216
         11.1 Light-cone point particle 216
         11.2 Heisenberg and Schr¨odinger pictures 218
         11.3 Quantization of the point particle 220
         11.4 Quantum particle and scalar particles 225
         11.5 Light-cone momentum operators 226
         11.6 Light-cone Lorentz generators 229
         12 Relativistic quantum open strings 236
         12.1 Light-cone Hamiltonian and commutators 236
         12.2 Commutation relations for oscillators 241
         12.3 Strings as harmonic oscillators 246
         12.4 Transverse Virasoro operators 250
         12.5 Lorentz generators 259
         12.6 Constructing the state space 262
         12.7 Equations of motion 268
         12.8 Tachyons and D-brane decay 270
         13 Relativistic quantum closed strings 280
         13.1 Mode expansions and commutation relations 280
         13.2 Closed string Virasoro operators 286
         13.3 Closed string state space 290
         13.4 String coupling and the dilaton 294
         13.5 Closed strings on the R1/Z2 orbifold 296
         13.6 The twisted sector of the orbifold 298
         14 A look at relativistic superstrings 307
         14.1 Introduction 307
         14.2 Anticommuting variables and operators 308
         14.3 World-sheet fermions 309
         14.4 Neveu−Schwarz sector 312
         14.5 Ramond sector 315
         14.6 Counting states 317
         14.7 Open superstrings 320
         14.8 Closed string theories 322
         Part II Developments 329
         15 D-branes and gauge fields 331
         15.1 Dp-branes and boundary conditions 331
         15.2 Quantizing open strings on Dp-branes 333
         15.3 Open strings between parallel Dp-branes 338
         15.4 Strings between parallel Dp- and Dq-branes 345
         16 String charge and electric charge 356
         16.1 Fundamental string charge 356
         16.2 Visualizing string charge 362
         16.3 Strings ending on D-branes 365
         16.4 D-brane charges 370
         17 T-duality of closed strings 376
         17.1 Duality symmetries and Hamiltonians 376
         17.2 Winding closed strings 378
         17.3 Left movers and right movers 381
         17.4 Quantization and commutation relations 383
         17.5 Constraint and mass formula 386
         17.6 State space of compactified closed strings 388
         17.7 A striking spectrum coincidence 392
         17.8 Duality as a full quantum symmetry 394
         18 T-duality of open strings 400
         18.1 T-duality and D-branes 400
         18.2 U(1) gauge transformations 404
         18.3 Wilson lines on circles 406
         18.4 Open strings and Wilson lines 410
         19 Electromagnetic fields on D-branes 415
         19.1 Maxwell fields coupling to open strings 415
         19.2 D-branes with electric fields 418
         19.3 D-branes with magnetic fields 423
         20 Nonlinear and Born−Infeld electrodynamics 433
         20.1 The framework of nonlinear electrodynamics 433
         20.2 Born−Infeld electrodynamics 438
         20.3 Born−Infeld theory and T-duality 443
         21 String theory and particle physics 451
         21.1 Intersecting D6-branes 451
         21.2 D-branes and the Standard Model gauge group 457
         21.3 Open strings and the Standard Model fermions 463
         21.4 The Standard Model on intersecting D6-branes 472
         21.5 String theory models of particle physics 479
         21.6 Moduli stabilization and the landscape 481
         22 String thermodynamics and black holes 495
         22.1 A review of statistical mechanics 495
         22.2 Partitions and the quantum violin string 498
         22.3 Hagedorn temperature 505
         22.4 Relativistic particle partition function 507
         22.5 Single string partition function 509
         22.6 Black holes and entropy 513
         22.7 Counting states of a black hole 517
         23 Strong interactions and AdS/CFT 525
         23.1 Introduction 525
         23.2 Mesons and quantum rotating strings 526
         23.3 The energy of a stretched effective string 531
         23.4 A large-N limit of a gauge theory 533
         23.5 Gravitational effects of massive sources 535
         23.6 Motivating the AdS/CFT correspondence 537
         23.7 Parameters in the AdS/CFT correspondence 541
         23.8 Hyperbolic spaces and conformal boundary 543
         23.9 Geometry of AdS and holography 549
         23.10 AdS/CFT at finite temperature 554
         23.11 The quark–gluon plasma 559
         24 Covariant string quantization 568
         24.1 Introduction 568
         24.2 Open string Virasoro operators 570
         24.3 Selecting the quantum constraints 572
         24.4 Lorentz covariant state space 577
         24.5 Closed string Virasoro operators 580
         24.6 The Polyakov string action 582
         25 String interactions and Riemann surfaces 591
         25.1 Introduction 591
         25.2 Interactions and observables 592
         25.3 String interactions and global world-sheets 595
         25.4 World-sheets as Riemann surfaces 598
         25.5 Schwarz−Christoffel map and three-string interaction 602
         25.6 Moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces 608
         25.7 Four open string interaction 617
         25.8 Veneziano amplitude 622
         26 Loop amplitudes in string theory 630
         26.1 Loop diagrams and ultraviolet divergences 630
         26.2 Annuli and one-loop open strings 631
         26.3 Annuli and electrostatic capacitance 636
         26.4 Non-planar open string diagrams 642
         26.5 Four closed string interactions 643
         26.6 The moduli space of tori 646
         References 659
         Index 667
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