String Theory Compactifications

The lectures in this book provide graduate students and non-specialist researchers with a concise introduction to the concepts and formalism required to reduce the ten-dimensional string theories to the observable four-dimensional space-time - a procedure called string compactification. The text starts with a very brief introduction to string theory, first working out its massless spectrum and showing how the condition on the number of dimensions arises. It then dwells on the different possible internal manifolds, from the simplest to the most relevant phenomenologically, thereby showing that the most elegant description is through an extension of ordinary Riemannian geometry termed generalized geometry, which was first introduced by Hitchin. Last but not least, the authors review open problems in string phenomenology, such as the embedding of the Standard Model and obtaining de Sitter solutions.

A unified perspective on new and advanced mathematical techniques used in string theory research for graduate students and researchers.

A systematic introduction to string phenomenology, outlining how string theory is connected to the real world of particle physics.

String theory is one of the most active branches of theoretical physics and has the potential to provide a unified description of all known particles and interactions. This book is a systematic introduction to the subject, focused on the detailed description of how string theory is connected to the real world of particle physics. Aimed at graduate students and researchers working in high energy physics, it provides explicit models of physics beyond the Standard Model. No prior knowledge of string theory is required as all necessary material is provided in the introductory chapters. The book provides particle phenomenologists with the information needed to understand string theory model building and describes in detail several alternative approaches to model building, such as heterotic string compactifications, intersecting D-brane models, D-branes at singularities and F-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.

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.

This book guides the reader through string theory, one of the most exciting and challenging areas of modern theoretical physics. It is ideal for graduate students and researchers in modern string theory, and will make an excellent textbook. It contains exercises with solutions, and homework problems with solutions.

String Theory, now almost 30 years of age, was partly forgotten but came back to the forefront of theoretical particle physics in 1984. In this book, based on lectures by the author at the K.U.Leuven and at the University of Padova, Elias Kiritsis takes the reader through the developments of the last 15 years: conformal field theory, the various superstrings and their spectra, compactifications, and the effective description of low energy degrees of freedom. It ends by showing a glimpse of the most recent developments, dualities of strings and higher dimensional objects, that influence both traditional field theory and present day mathematics. Readership: Theoretical physicists, and mathematicians with an interest in modern string theory. 1. Introduction 2. Historical perspective 3. Classical string theory 3.1. The point particle 3.2. Relativistic strings 3.3. Oscillator expansions 4. Quantization of the bosonic string 4.1. Covariant canonical quantization 4.2. Light-cone quantization 4.3. Spectrum of the bosonic string 4.4. Path integral quantization 4.5. Topologically non-trivial world-sheets 4.6. BRST primer 4.7. BRST in string theory and the physical spectrum 4.8. Interactions and loop amplitudes 5. Conformal field theory 5.1. Conformal transformations 5.2. Conformally invariant field theory 5.3. Radial quantization 5.4. Example: the free boson 5.5. The central charge 5.6. The free fermion 5.7. Mode expansions 5.8. The Hilbert space 5.9. Representations of the conformal algebra 5.10. Affine algebras 5.11. Free fermions and O(N) affine symmetry 5.12. N=1 superconformal symmetry 5.13. N=2 superconformal symmetry 5.14. N=4 superconformal symmetry 5.15. The CFT of ghosts 6. CFT on the torus 6.1. Compact scalars 6.2. Enhanced symmetry and the string Higgs effect 6.3. T-duality 6.4. Free fermions on the torus 6.5. Bosonization 6.6. Orbifolds 6.7. CFT on higher-genus Riemann surfaces 7. Scattering amplitudes and vertex operators of bosonic strings 8. Strings in background fields and low-energy effective actions 9. Superstrings and supersymmetry 9.1. Closed (type-II) superstrings 9.2. Massless R-R states 9.3. Type-I superstrings 9.4. Heterotic superstrings 9.5. Superstring vertex operators 9.6. Supersymmetric effective actions 10. Anomalies 11. Compactification and supersymmetry breaking 11.1. Toroidal compactifications 11.2. Compactification on non-trivial manifolds 11.3. World-sheet versus spacetime supersymmetry 11.4. Heterotic orbifold compactifications with N=2 supersymmetry 11.5. Spontaneous supersymmetry breaking 11.6. Heterotic N=1 theories and chirality in four dimensions 11.7. Orbifold compactifications of the type-II string 12. Loop corrections to effective couplings in string theory 12.1. Calculation of gauge thresholds 12.2. On-shell infrared regularization 12.3. Gravitational thresholds 12.4. Anomalous U(1)?s 12.5. N=1,2 examples of thresholds corrections 12.6. N=2 universality of thresholds 12.7. Unification 13. Non-perturbative string dualities: a foreword 13.1. Antisymmetric tensors and p-branes 13.2. BPS states and bounds 13.3. Heterotic/type-I duality in ten dimensions 13.4. Type-IIA versus M-theory 13.5. M-theory and the E8xE8 heterotic string 13.6. Self-duality of the type-IIB string 13.7. D-branes are the type-II R-R charged states 13.8. D-brane actions 13.9. Heterotic/type-II duality in six and four dimensions 14. Outlook Appendices A. Theta functions B. Toroidal lattice sums C. Toroidal Kaluza-Klein reduction D. N=1,2,4, D=4 supergravity coupled to matter E. BPS Multiplets and helicity supertrace formulae F. Modular forms G. Helicity string partition functions H. Electric-Magnetic duality in D=4 References ISBN10:9061868947 Imprint:Leuven University Press Language: English NUR * 925 Theoretische natuurkunde * Number of pages: v-316 * Width: 16 cm * Height: 24 cm * Elias Kiritsis, Author (all publications from this author/editor with Leuven University Press)