Self-contained and comprehensive, this definitive new edition provides a complete overview of the intersection of gravity, supergravity, and superstrings.
The joint authors are Riccardo D'Auria, and Pietro Fre. Their ambitious attempt here is to present a self-contained account of the field with sufficient explication to both introduce it and give an advanced treatment. They deal with gravity and differential geometry, the algebraic basis of supersymmetry, supergravity in the rheonomy framework, the role of the scalar fields, Kaluza-Klein supergravity and heterotic superstrings and supergravity. Carefully typed throughout--but typed, with the attendant strain on the eyes (and concentration). A very impressive piece of work (deserving of better than acidic bookpaper). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This book provides a self-contained presentation of supergravity theories from its fundamentals to its most recent union with string and superstring theories, which are also reviewed in a self-contained manner. The subject is presented consistently in a unified geometric formalism, relying on the calculus of exterior forms and the mathematics needed to develop the theory is explained in appropriate chapters.
Supergravity, together with string theory, is one of the most significant developments in theoretical physics. Written by two of the most respected workers in the field, this is the first-ever authoritative and systematic account of supergravity. The book starts by reviewing aspects of relativistic field theory in Minkowski spacetime. After introducing the relevant ingredients of differential geometry and gravity, some basic supergravity theories (D=4 and D=11) and the main gauge theory tools are explained. In the second half of the book, complex geometry and N=1 and N=2 supergravity theories are covered. Classical solutions and a chapter on AdS/CFT complete the book. Numerous exercises and examples make it ideal for Ph.D. students, and with applications to model building, cosmology and solutions of supergravity theories, it is also invaluable to researchers. A website hosted by the authors, featuring solutions to some exercises and additional reading material, can be found at www.cambridge.org/supergravity.
A unified theory embracing all physical phenomena is a major goal of theoretical physics. In the early 1980s, many physicists looked to eleven-dimensional supergravity in the hope that it might provide that elusive superunified theory. In 1984 supergravity was knocked off its pedestal by ten-dimensional superstrings, one-dimensional objects whose v
Many of the topics in this book are outgrowths of the spectacular new understanding of duality in string theory which emerged around 1995. They include the AdS/CFT correspondence and its relation to holography, the matrix theory formulation of M theory, the structure of black holes in string theory, the structure of D-branes and M-branes, and detailed development of dualities with N = 1 and N = 2 supersymmetry. In addition, there are lectures covering experimental and phenomenological aspects of the Standard Model and its extensions, and discussions on cosmology including both theoretical aspects and the exciting new experimental evidence for a non-zero cosmological constant. Contents: TASI Lectures on Branes, Black Holes and Anti-De Sitter Space (M J Duff); D-Brane Primer (C V Johnson); TASI Lectures on Black Holes in String Theory (A W Peet); TASI Lectures: Cosmology for String Theorists (S M Carroll); TASI Lectures on Matrix Theory (T Banks); TASI Lectures on M Theory Phenomenology (M Dine); TASI Lectures: Introduction to the AdS/CFT Correspondence (I R Klebanov); TASI Lectures on Compactification and Duality (D R Morrison); Compactification, Geometry and Duality: N =2 (P S Aspinwall); TASI Lectures on Non-BPS D-Brane Systems (J H Schwarz); Lectures on Warped Compactifications and Stringy Brane Constructions (S Kachru); TASI Lectures on the Holographic Principle (D Bigatti & L Susskind). Readership: Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers in high energy physics.
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough. Niels Bohr Superstring theory has emerged as the most promising candidate for a quan tum theory of all known interactions. Superstrings apparently solve a problem that has defied solution for the past 50 years, namely the unification of the two great fundamental physical theories of the century, quantum field theory and general relativity. Superstring theory introduces an entirely new physical picture into theoretical physics and a new mathematics that has startled even the mathematicians. Ironically, although superstring theory is supposed to provide a unified field theory of the universe, the theory itself often seems like a confused jumble offolklore, random rules of thumb, and intuition. This is because the develop ment of superstring theory has been unlike that of any other theory, such as general relativity, which began with a geometry and an action and later evolved into a quantum theory. Superstring theory, by contrast, has been evolving backward for the past 20 years. It has a bizarre history, beginning with the purely accidental discovery of the quantum theory in 1968 by G. Veneziano and M. Suzuki. Thumbing through old math books, they stumbled by chance on the Beta function, written down in the last century by mathematician Leonhard Euler.
Contains selection of expository and research article by lecturers at the school. Highlights current interests of researchers working at the interface between string theory and algebraic supergravity, supersymmetry, D-branes, the McKay correspondence andFourer-Mukai transform.
This book is a pedagogical introduction to supergravity, a gravitational field theory that includes supersymmetry (symmetry between bosons and fermions) and is a generalization of Einstein's general relativity. Supergravity provides a low-energy effective theory of superstring theory, which has attracted much attention as a candidate for the unified theory of fundamental particles, and it is a useful tool for studying non-perturbative properties of superstring theory such as D-branes and string duality. This work considers classical supergravities in four and higher spacetime dimensions with their applications to superstring theory in mind. More concretely, it discusses classical Lagrangians (or field equations) and symmetry properties of supergravities. Besides local symmetries, supergravities often have global non-compact symmetries, which play a crucial role in their applications to superstring theory. One of the main features of this book is its detailed discussion of these non-compact symmetries. The aim of the book is twofold. One is to explain the basic ideas of supergravity to those who are not familiar with it. Toward that end, the discussions are made both pedagogical and concrete by stating equations explicitly. The other is to collect relevant formulae in one place so as to be useful for applications to string theory. The subjects discussed in this book include the vielbein formulation of gravity, supergravities in four dimensions, possible types of spinors in various dimensions, superalgebras and supermultiplets, non-linear sigma models for non-compact Lie groups, electric-magnetic duality symmetries, supergravities in higher dimensions, dimensional reductions, and gauged and massive supergravities.