These papers cover interesting aspects of string theory (ranging from more mathematical aspects of string theory to possible phenomenological applications) that will not be discussed in detail in the lectures this semester. Their difficulty level varies; if you are uncertain about which choice is suitable for you, or if you are interested in reading an article not on this list, please send me an email. Once an article has been assigned to a student, that student's name will appear in (parentheses) in the list below. If you are still interested in learning about the physics content of a paper assigned to somebody else, you are encouraged to contact the person whose name appears in parentheses next to that article.
[1] M. Dine, R. Rohm, N. Seiberg and E. Witten, "Gluino Condensation in Superstring Models," Phys. Lett. B156 (1985) 55.
[2] E. Witten, "Noncommutative Geometry and String Field Theory," Nucl. Phys. B268 (1986) 253 (Mattijs Ransdorp).
[3] N. Seiberg and E. Witten, "Spin Structures in String Theory," Nucl. Phys. B276 (1986) 272 (Dmitriy Vasilyuk).
[4] K.S. Narain, M.H. Sarmadi and C. Vafa, "Asymmetric Orbifolds," Nucl. Phys. B288 (1987) 551.
[5] M.J. Duff, P.S. Howe, T. Inami and K.S. Stelle, "Superstrings in D=10 from Supermembranes in D=11," Phys. Lett. B191 (1987) 70.
[6] D.J. Gross and V. Periwal, "String Perturbation Theory Diverges," Phys. Rev. Lett. 60 (1988) 2105 (Anthony Ndirango).
[7] T. Banks, L.J. Dixon, D. Friedan and E.J. Martinec, "Phenomenology and Conformal Field Theory, or Can String Theory Predict the Weak Mixing Angle?" Nucl. Phys. B299 (1988) 613 (Alex Merchant).
[8] D.J. Gross and P.F. Mende, "String Theory Beyond the Planck Scale," Nucl. Phys. B303 (1988) 407.
[9] J.J. Atick and E. Witten, "The Hagedorn Transition and the Number of Degrees of Freedom of String Theory," Nucl. Phys. B310 (1988) 291 (Daniel Larson).
[10] W. Lerche, C. Vafa and N.P. Warner, "Chiral Rings in N=2 Superconformal Theories," Nucl. Phys. B324 (1989) 427.
[11] D. Garfinkle, G.T. Horowitz and A. Strominger, "Charged Black Holes in String Theory," Phys. Rev. D43 (1991) 3140 (Andrea Pasqua).
[12] E. Witten, "On String Theory and Black Holes," Phys. Rev. D44 (1991) 314 (Takemichi Okui).
[13] E. Witten, "Mirror Manifolds and Topological Field Theory," hep-th/9112056 (Alfonso Gracia-Saz).
[14] E. Witten, "Chern-Simons Gauge Theory as a String Theory," hep-th/9207094.
[15] A. Strominger and C. Vafa, "Microscopic Origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking Entropy," hep-th/9601029 (Padraig Murphy).
[16] A. Strominger, S.-T. Yau and E. Zaslow, "Mirror Symmetry is T-Duality," hep-th/9606040.
[17] P. Horava, "Gluino Condensation in Strongly Coupled Heterotic String Theory," hep-th/9608019 (Ilya L. Osipenkov).
[18] T. Banks, W. Fischler, S.H. Shenker and L. Susskind, "M-Theory as a Matrix Model: A Conjecture," hep-th/9610043 (Brian Feldstein).
[19] J.M. Maldacena, "The Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity," hep-th/97711200.
[20] R. Minasian and G. Moore, "K-Theory and Ramond-Ramond Charge," hep-th/9710230.
[21] A. Sen, "Stable Non-BPS States in String Theory," hep-th/9803194 (Jeff Brown).
[22] N. Seiberg and E. Witten, "String Theory and Noncommutative Geometry," hep-th/9908142 (James Gill).
[23] M. Fabinger and P. Horava, "Casimir Effect Between World-Branes in Heterotic M-Theory," hep-th/0002073.
[24] J. Gomis and H. Ooguri, "Non-Relativistic Closed String Theory," hep-th/0009181 (Bom Soo Kim).
[25] E. Witten, "Quantum Gravity in de Sitter Space," hep-th/0106109 (Roni Harnik).