Ebook: Introduction to String Theory

Institut fur Theoretische Physik, Universit at Heidelberg, 2012. — 177 p.Contents
Literature
Motivation and Overview
Why do we study String Theory?
The need for a quantum theory of gravity
Programme
The classical bosonic string
The relativistic point particle
The bosonic string action
Oscillator expansions
Quantisation of the bosonic string
Old canonical quantisation
Light-cone quantisation (LCQ)
Modern covariant quantisation
Conformal eld theory (CFT)
Conformal invariance
The conformal group in d 3
The conformal group in d = 2
Conformal elds and their OPE
Conformal Ward-Takahashi identities and energy-momentum tensor
State-operator correspondence, highest weight states, Verma modules
Correlation functions in CFT
Normal ordering and Wick's theorem
Applications to String Theory
String Interactions
Perturbative Expansion
Moduli space of Riemann surfaces
The gauge xed S-matrix
Tree-level amplitudes
1-loop amplitudes
Strings on curved backgrounds
Superstring theory
The classical RNS action
Super-conformal invariance
Mode expansions: Ramond vs. Neveu-Schwarz
Canonical quantisation and Super-Virasoro-Algebra
Open string spectrum in light-cone quantisation (all NN)
Closed string spectrum in LCQ
The GSO projection: Type IIA and Type IIB