@StartDate: 1/18/2005 @DaysOfWeek: 3,5 @Holiday +Name: Presidents' Day Holiday +StartDate: 2/21/2005 +EndDate: 2/21/2005 @Holiday +Name: Spring Recess +StartDate: 3/21/2005 +EndDate: 3/25/2005 @Holiday +Name: Lecture Cancelled +StartDate: 4/5/2005 +EndDate: 4/5/2005 @Topic +Subject: Introduction @Lecture +Subject: Introduction +Reference: I1.1 +Description Planck scale; nonrenormalizability of ordinary gravity; grand unification; flat directions; moduli and their vacuum expectation values (VEVs);

A nice discussion on flat directions can be found in section 2 of Dine's lecture notes on M Theory Phenomenology [hep-th/0003175]. @Topic +Subject: Fundamentals of String Quantization @Lecture +Subject: Polyakov action +Reference: I1 +Description World-sheet; Target-space; Namb-Goto action; Polyakov action; Diffeomorphism invariance; Weyl symmetry; @Lecture +Subject: Open string boundary conditions +Reference: I1 +HomeworkFile: HW1.pdf +Homework: Set 1 +Description Neumann boundary conditions; Dirichlet boundary conditions; mixed boundary conditions; @Lecture +Subject: Heat Kernel Techniques +Reference: GSW 11.4 +Description Anomalies; Weyl Anomaly; Heat Kernel; Liouville Action; critical dimension; @Lecture +Subject: Introduction to string quantization +HomeworkFile: HW2.pdf +Homework: Set 2 +Reference: I1 +Description Euler number; gauge fixing; lightcone gauge; string oscillators; the tachyon; @Lecture +Subject: Virasoro algebra +Reference: I1 +Description The longitudinal coordinate; Virasoro algebra; critical dimension; string bits; Casimir energy; @Lecture +Subject: Regge slope / closed strings +Reference: I1 +Description Regge bound on angular momentum; Regge slope; closed strings; level-matching; @Lecture +Subject: Closed string spectrum / CFT +Reference: I1-2 +Description massless spectrum; graviton; anti-symmetric 2-form; dilaton; higher dimensional free form-theories; conformal symmetry; 2-d free scalars; @Topic +Subject: Conformal field theory @Lecture +Subject: Operator product expansion +Reference: I2 +HomeworkFile: HW3.pdf +Homework: Set 3 +Description Free scalar; OPEs; @Lecture +Subject: Conserved currents +Reference: I2 +Description Ward identities and conserved currents; @Lecture +Subject: Primary fields +Reference: I2 +Description Conformal invariance; energy-momentum tensor; conformal weights; primary fields; @Lecture +Subject: Central charge +Reference: I2 +Description Linear dilaton CFT; bc CFT; free fermions; central charge; Schwarzian derivatve; @Lecture +Subject: Virasoro algebra +Reference: I2 +Description Virasoro algebra; boundary conditions; the doubling trick; @Lecture +Subject: Mode expansions +Reference: I2 +Description Mode expansions; normal ordering; ghost number anomaly; @Lecture +Subject: State-operator correpondence +Reference: I2 +HomeworkFile: HW4.pdf +Homework: Set 4 +Description State-operator correspondence; SL(2,C)-invariant ground state; @Lecture +Subject: Unitary CFTs +Reference: I2 +Description Unitary CFTs; Kac determinant; minimal models; @Topic +Subject: Scattering amplitudes @Lecture +Subject: Tree level amplitudes +Reference: I6 +Description Tachyon and graviton vertex operators; Correlation functions on the sphere; Zamolodchikov metric; @Lecture +Subject: The Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude +Reference: I6 +HomeworkFile: HW5.pdf +Homework: Set 5 +Description Calculation of the scattering amplitude for closed string tachyons; @Lecture +Subject: The Polyakov path integral +Reference: I3 +Description Faddeev-Popov ghosts; Diff and Weyl gauge fixing; Weyl anomaly; @Lecture +Subject: Moduli space and CKVs +Reference: +Description S-matrix formula for arbitrary genus; Conformal Killing Vectors (CKVs); moduli space; Fundamental domain for a torus; Zero modes of the (b,c) ghosts and their relation to CKVs and moduli; anomaly of the bc current; @Lecture +Subject: Vertex operators +Reference: +HwFile: HW6.pdf +Homework: Set 6 +Description The regularized Tachyon vertex operator; The graviton, dilaton and anti-symmetric tensor vertex operators; @Lecture +Subject: Classical Equations of motion +Reference: +Description @Lecture +Subject: One-loop Vacuum amplitudes +Reference: I7 +Description UV finiteness; Vacuum energy; @Lecture +Subject: General amplitudes +Reference: +Description @Lecture +Subject: Open-string one-loop amplitudes +Reference: I7 +Description Cylinder; Klein bottle; Mobious string; @Topic +Subject: The five string theories @Lecture +Subject: Spinors in various dimensions +Reference: II-B +Description Clifford algebra; Dirac spinors; Reality condition; Weyl spinors; Majorana spinors; Majorana Weyl spinors; @Lecture +Subject: Open strings +Reference: +Description @Lecture +Subject: type-II strings +Reference: +Description superconformal ghosts, periodic and anti-periodic boundary conditions, @Lecture +Subject: Heterotic strings +Reference: +Description @Topic +Subject: Target space physics @Lecture +Subject: Low energy effective actions +Reference: I3.7 +Description low-energy effective actions; @Topic +Subject: Compactification @Lecture +Subject: Toroidal compactification +Reference: II +Description Winding number; T-duality; @Lecture +Subject: Calabi-Yau manifolds +Reference: II +Description Complex manifolds; Kahler manifolds; Cohomology; Spinors; ########### @BeforeTable

Physics 250 Homepage

Superstring Theory

This course is an introduction to string theory. The first part of the course will cover basic techniques for calculating the spectrum and scattering amplitudes in bosonic string theory. In the second part we will introduce supersymmetric string theories, and discuss compactification and applications to phenomenology.

Term papers: A list of suggested term papers can be found here.

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

Tentative Course Plan

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(The above course outline is subject to change.)

Hours

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