Strings, Conformal Fields, and M-Theory / Edition 2

by Michio Kaku

Overview

String theory continues to progress at an astonishing rate, and this book brings the reader up to date with the latest developments and the most active areas of research in the field. Building on the foundations laid in his Introduction to Superstrings and M Theory, Professor Kaku discusses such topics as the classification of conformal string theories, knot theory, the Yang-Baxter relation, quantum groups, and the insights into 11-dimensional strings recently obtained from M-theory. New chapters discuss such topics as Seiberg- Witten theory, M theory and duality., and D-branes. Several chapters review the fundamentals of string theory, making the presentation of the material self-contained while keeping overlap with the earlier book to a minimum. This book conveys the vitality of the current research and places readers at its forefront.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461267928
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	10/04/2012
Series:	Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics
Edition description:	2nd ed. 2000. Softcover reprint of the original 2nd ed. 2000
Pages:	531
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

I Conformal Field Theory and Perturbation Theory.- 1 Introduction to Superstrings.- 2 BPZ Bootstrap and Minimal Models.- 3 WZW Model, Cosets, and Rational Conformal Field Theory.- 4 Modular Invariance and the A—D—E Classification.- N = 2 SUSY and Parafermions.- 6 Yang—Baxter Relation.- 7 Toward a Classification of Conformal Field Theories.- 8 Knot Theory and Quantum Groups.- II Nonperturbative Methods.- 9 String Field Theory.- 10 Non polynomial String Field Theory.- 11 2D Gravity and Matrix Models.- 12 Topological Field Theory.- 13 Seiberg—Witten Theory.- 14 M-Theory and Duality.- 15 D-Branes and CFT/ADS Duality.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

"...because of its wide range in topics, it becomes extremely handy as a 'reference manual'...Kaku's book covers most of the 'hot topics' from the period 1985 through 1996 in a concise but still quite complete way, it fulfills this task in a superb way." Physicalia

"... A comprehensive survey of essentially all recent research undertaken in string theory and related fields... the author's ability to present such an enormous variety of material is astonishing, resulting in a book that is up-to-date and thorough." Physics Today

From the Publisher