String Theory is our current best candidate for the unification of all fundamental forces, including gravity, in a consistent quantum framework. In this collection of lectures delivered at the Cargèse Summer School ‘String Theory: from Gauge Interactions to Cosmology”, world leading experts provide an up-to-date survey of the latest developments in this topic, including the gauge/gravity correspondence, superstring cosmology and cosmic strings, topological string theory and matrix models, physics beyond the standard model and the landscape of vacua of string theory, conformal field theory and critical phenomena in statistical mechanics. Many more topics are also discussed in shorter contributions by School participants. Written with an emphasis on pedagogy, this volume will be a invaluable resource to students and experts alike.
Cuprins
Lectures.- Strings in a Landscape.- Quantization of Holomorphic Forms and = 1 Supersymmetry on Special Manifolds.- Loewner Chains.- Theory of Cosmological Perturbations and Applications to Superstring Cosmology.- Towards a Topological String.- Challenges of Matrix Models.- Phenomenology of Neutrino Oscillations.- Closed Strings in Misner Space: A Toy Model for a Big Bounce?.- Phenomenological Guide to Physics Beyond the Standard Model.- to Cosmic F- and D-Strings.- Long Time Scales and Eternal Black Holes.- Semiclassical Strings and Ad S/CFT.- Seminars.- Baryogenesis with Large Extra Dimensions.- Braneworld Cosmology Almost without Branes.- Chaotic Cascades for D-Branes on Sigularities.- = 1 Gauge Theory Effective Superpotentials.- Gromov-Witten Theory and Automorphic Forms.- Black Hole Instabilities and Phase Transitions.- Probing Singularities.- Inflation Unloaded.- D-Brane Effective Actions.- ADS2 × S2 as an Exact Heterotic String Background.- Strings and D-Branes in Holographic Backgrounds.- Cosmic Censorship in ADS/CFT.- Topics in Black Hole Production.- Towards the Exact Dilatation Operator of = 4 Super Yang-Mills Theory.- Moduli Trapping and String Gas Cosmology.- Stringy Geometry: Generalized Complex Structure.- Integrability of Superconformal Field Theory and SUSY N=1 Kd V.