Physics 250 Homepage

Description

Superstring Theory

Instructor

Lectures: Ori Ganor
Email: origa@socrates.berkeley.edu
Office hours: Tuesdays 4-5pm, Thursdays 2-4pm, Birge 445

Tentative Course Plan

# Date Lecture topic Homework Solution Ref.
Review of scattering amplitudes
1a 08/31 Recap of string amplitudes - - I5
One-loop Amplitudes
1b 09/02 Theta-functions - - I7
- 09/06 Labor Day
2a 09/07 One-loop amplitudes - - I7
2b 09/09 Lattices, Lie algebras and the Heterotic String - - I7
3a 09/14 Modular invariance - - I7
3b 09/16 One-loop Vacuum amplitudes - - I7
4a 09/21 Open-string one-loop amplitudes - - I7
Superconformal field theories
4b 09/23 Spinors in various dimensions - - II-B
5a 09/28 Superconformal field theories - - II10
Superstring Theories
5b 09/30 Bosonization - - II10
6a 10/05 Vertex operators - - II10
6b 10/07 Quantization - - II10
7a 10/12 Closed string spectrum - - II10
7b 10/14 Type II strings - - II10
8a 10/19 M-theory/IIA Low energy effective actions - - II12
8b 10/21 Type IIB effective action - - II12
9a 10/26 Type-I and Heterotic effective action - - II12
9b 10/28 Picture changing - - II12


(The above course outline is subject to change.)

Hours

Book

Tools


Details of lectures

Review of scattering amplitudes

Recap of string amplitudes

String scattering amplitude; ghosts; moduli; CKVs;

One-loop Amplitudes

Theta-functions

Theta functions; Dedekind eta function; Jacobi triple product identity; bosonization; Asymptotic density of string states; Hagedorn temperature;

One-loop amplitudes

Torus amplitude; Green's function on a torus; Modular transformations;

Lattices, Lie algebras and the Heterotic String

Heterotic string, even selfdual lattices, E8xE8, Spin(32)/Z2, Lie algebras, root lattices, weight spaces;

Modular invariance

Modular invariance and UV finiteness; Vacuum energy;

One-loop Vacuum amplitudes

UV finiteness; Vacuum energy;

Open-string one-loop amplitudes

Cylinder; Klein bottle; Mobious string;

Superconformal field theories

Spinors in various dimensions

Clifford algebra; Dirac spinors; Reality condition; Weyl spinors; Majorana spinors; Majorana Weyl spinors;

Superconformal field theories

Tensor products of spinors; Superconformal algebra; Superconformal free CFTs; periodic and anti-periodic boundary conditions; superconformal ghosts;

Superstring Theories

Bosonization

bosonization of ghosts;

Vertex operators

vertex operators;

Quantization

Type IIA and type IIB spectra; Ghost zero modes; picture changing; Tree amplitudes;

Closed string spectrum

R and NS spectra.

Type II strings

Type IIA and type IIB string spectra;

M-theory/IIA Low energy effective actions

Gravitinos; type IIA and M-theory low-energy bosonic effective actions;

Type IIB effective action

Type IIB low-energy effective action; self-dual field strength;

Type-I and Heterotic effective action

Type I and heterotic low-energy effective actions;

Picture changing

Picture changing operators; worldsheet superspace;