Introduction to superstrings
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Introduction to superstrings
zbMATH Open document ID: 0655.58001
author: Michio Kaku
published in: Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics
publication date: 1993-06-05T00:00:00Z
review text: This book is organized in three parts. The first one (that includes the first five chapters) is a clear explanation of the basic ideas about string and superstring theories. It includes a review on path integrals and point particle theories. Strings and superstrings are introduced and first quantized in analogy with point particles. For superstrings, both the Neveu-Schwarz-Ramond (NS-R) model and the Green-Schwarz (G-S) model are discussed. In chapter 4, conformal field theory, combining the best features of NS-R and G-S formalisms, is investigated. Single loop and multiloop amplitudes are studied in chapter 5. This first part is a rather complete introduction. As a foundation for the developments of the theory, this part is essential for beginners and a valuable review for more advanced students. The next two parts of the book introduce more advanced topics that are presently under research. Part II, composed of three chapters (6, 7 and 8), introduces string field theory. Initially the theory is discussed in the light cone formalism. Next, a fully covariant string theory is formulated with the introduction of Faddeev-Popov ghosts and BRST formalism. In chapter 8, string field theory is presented as the gauge theory of the universal string group (USG). Representations, connections and curvatures of the USG are derived. Advantages of this approach are discussed. Part III deals with phenomenology. Chan-Paton factors and anomaly cancellation are used to fix the gauge group. Characteristic classes and Dirac index are studied to help the calculation of anomalies of the string theory. Chapter 10 is dedicated to the study of heterotic strings. It includes the spectrum of the theory, the covariant formulation and the calculation of single loop amplitudes. Lorentzian lattices are also discussed. In the last chapter, the author studies compactification to four dimensions using Calabi-Yau spaces and orbifolds. Cohomology, homology, Kähler manifolds are reviewed. Symmetry break…
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 58Z05
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 81T30
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 81T40
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 81S40
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 81-01
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 17B67
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 83E30
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 58J20
zbMATH DE Number: 193658
zbMATH Keywords: string
zbMATH Keywords: superstring
zbMATH Keywords: path integrals
zbMATH Keywords: point particle theories
zbMATH Keywords: conformal field theory
zbMATH Keywords: string field theory
zbMATH Keywords: covariant string theory
zbMATH Keywords: gauge theory
reviewed by: Vanda Silveira
MaRDI profile type: Publication
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 193658