String Theory

These pages are notes following Barton Zwiebach's book "A First Course in String Theory", 2nd Edition (2009). This is at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. It is focused mostly on bosonic string theory and light-cone quantization, mostly not heterotic or string field theory or Lorentz covariant quantization. The pages may extend into more advanced subjects later, using those chapters as a framework. I will initially focus on working on solutions for the problems in Zwiebach's textbook. Mostly these should be correct, if occasionally more prosaic than necessary, but they have not been subjected to grading in a university.

Solutions I expect are significantly flawed are marked (**). Those I feel should be essentially correct, but may not quite be what the problem is looking for, or may be lacking in sufficient rigor will be marked (*). These might have a "fuzzy" step or steps. To paraphrase something I heard Sylvester Gates say once about grading student homework (and later about a paper by Stephen Hawking): "You read it from top to bottom, then bottom to top. Somewhere in the middle they proved the existence of God."

Part I: Basics

I. Basics

What is string theory?

Heuristic Overview

II. Special Relativity and Extra Dimensions

Light-cone Coordinates

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Two, Zwiebach

III. Electromagnetism and Gravitation in Various Dimensions

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Three, Zwiebach

IV. Nonrelativistic Strings

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Four, Zwiebach

V. Relativistic Point Particles

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Five, Zwiebach

VI. Relativistic Strings

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Six, Zwiebach

VII. String Parameterization and Classical Motion

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Seven, Zwiebach

VIII. World-Sheet Currents

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Eight, Zwiebach

IX. Light-cone Relativistic Strings

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Nine, Zwiebach

X. Light-cone Fields and Particles

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Ten, Zwiebach

XI. Relativistic Quantum Point Particle

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Eleven, Zwiebach

XII. Relativistic Quantum Open Strings

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Twelve, Zwiebach

XIII. Relativistic Quantum Closed Strings

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Thirteen, Zwiebach

XIV. Relativistic Superstrings

Problem Set Solutions: Chapter Fourteen, Zwiebach

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Last updated: 12/21/2020