A First Course in String Theory

Once again faithful to its goal of making string theory accessible to undergraduates - and now also covers AdS/CFT correspondence.

Barton Zwiebach (Author)

9780521880329, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 January 2009

694 pages, 86 b/w illus. 180 exercises
25.2 x 19.5 x 3.2 cm, 1.62 kg

'… excellent introduction by Zwiebach… aimed at advanced undergraduates who have some background in quantum mechanics and special relativity, but have not necessarily mastered quantum field theory and general relativity yet … the book … is a very thorough introduction to the subject … Equipped with this background, the reader can safely start to tackle the books by Green, Schwarz and Witten and by Polchinski.' Marcel L. Vonk, Mathematical Reviews Clippings

String theory made understandable. Barton Zwiebach is once again faithful to his goal of making string theory accessible to undergraduates. He presents the main concepts of string theory in a concrete and physical way to develop intuition before formalism, often through simplified and illustrative examples. Complete and thorough in its coverage, this new edition now includes AdS/CFT correspondence and introduces superstrings. It is perfectly suited to introductory courses in string theory for students with a background in mathematics and physics. New sections cover strings on orbifolds, cosmic strings, moduli stabilization, and the string theory landscape. Now with almost 300 problems and exercises, with password-protected solutions for instructors at www.cambridge.org/zwiebach.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I. Basics: 1. A brief introduction
2. Special relativity and extra dimensions
3. Electromagnetism and gravitation in various dimensions
4. Nonrelativistic strings
5. The relativistic point particle
6. Relativistic strings
7. Strong parameterization and classical motion
8. World-sheet currents
9. Light-cone relativistic strings
10. Light-cone fields and particles
11. The relativistic quantum point particle
12, Relativistic quantum closed strings
13. Relativistic quantum closed strings
14. A look at relativistic superstrings
Part II. Developments: 15. D-branes and gauge fields
16. String charge and electric charge
17. T-duality of closed strings
18. T-duality of open strings
19. Electromagnetism fields in D-branes
20. Nonlinear and Born-Infeld electrodynamics
21. Strong theory and particle physics
22. String thermodynamics and black holes
23. Strong interactions and AdS/CFT
24. Covariant string quantization
25. String interactions and Riemann surfaces
26. Loop amplitudes in string theory
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Statistical physics [PHS]