Strings, Conformal Fields, and M-Theory

✍ Scribed by Michio Kaku (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 541
• Series: Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

String theory continues to progress at an astonishing rate, and this book brings the reader up to date with the latest developments and the most active areas of research in the field. Building on the foundations laid in his Introduction to Superstrings and M Theory, Professor Kaku discusses such topics as the classification of conformal string theories, knot theory, the Yang-Baxter relation, quantum groups, and the insights into 11-dimensional strings recently obtained from M-theory. New chapters discuss such topics as Seiberg- Witten theory, M theory and duality., and D-branes. Several chapters review the fundamentals of string theory, making the presentation of the material self-contained while keeping overlap with the earlier book to a minimum. This book conveys the vitality of the current research and places readers at its forefront.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xv
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Introduction to Superstrings....Pages 3-37
BPZ Bootstrap and Minimal Models....Pages 38-68
WZW Model, Cosets, and Rational Conformal Field Theory....Pages 69-95
Modular Invariance and the A—D—E Classification....Pages 96-129
N =2 SUSY and Parafermions....Pages 130-165
Yang-Baxter Relation....Pages 166-195
Toward a Classification of Conformal Field Theories....Pages 196-230
Knot Theory and Quantum Groups....Pages 231-271
Front Matter....Pages 273-273
String Field Theory....Pages 275-312
Nonpolynomial String Field Theory....Pages 313-345
2D Gravity and Matrix Models....Pages 346-384
Topological Field Theory....Pages 385-426
Seiberg-Witten Theory....Pages 427-456
M-Theory and Duality....Pages 457-486
D-Branes and CFT/ADS Duality....Pages 487-524
Back Matter....Pages 525-531

✦ Subjects

Quantum Physics;Quantum Information Technology, Spintronics