Ebook: Basic concepts of string theory

The purpose of this book is to thoroughly prepare the reader for research in string theory at an intermediate level. As such it is not a compendium of results but intended as textbook in the sense that most of the material is organized in a pedagogical and self-contained fashion.

Beyond the basics, a number of more advanced topics are introduced, such as conformal field theory, superstrings and string dualities - the text does not cover applications to black hole physics and cosmology, nor strings theory at finite temperatures.

End-of-chapter references have been added to guide the reader wishing to pursue further studies or to start research in well-defined topics covered by this book.

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Most of the numerical predictions of experimental phenomena in particle physics over the last decade have been made possible by the discovery and exploitation of the simplifications that can happen when phenomena are investigated on short distance and time scales. This book provides a coherent exposition of the techniques underlying these calculations. After reminding the reader of some basic properties of field theories, examples are used to explain the problems to be treated. Then the technique of dimensional regularization and the renormalization group. Finally a number of key applications are treated, culminating in the treatment of deeply inelastic scattering The Classical Bosonic String.- The Quantized Bosonic String.- Introduction to Conformal Field Theory.- Parametrization Ghosts and BRST Quantization.- String Perturbation Theory and One-Loop Amplitudes.- The Classical Fermionic String.- The Quantized Fermionic String.- Superstrings.- Toroidal Compactifications - 10-Dimensional Heterotic String.- Conformal Field Theory II: Lattices and Kac-Moody Algebras.- Conformal Field Theory III: Superconformal Field Theory.- Covariant Vertex Operators, BRST and Covariant Lattices.- String Compactifications.- CFTs for Type II and Heterotic String Vacua.- String Scattering Amplitudes and Low Energy Effective Field Theory.- Compactifications of the Type II Superstring With D-branes and Fluxes.- String Dualities and M-theory