String Theory

Volume 2: Superstring Theory and Beyond begins with an introduction to supersymmetric string theories and goes on to a broad presentation of the important advances of recent years. The book first introduces the type I type II and heterotic superstring theories and their interactions. It then goes on to present important recent discoveries about strongly coupled strings beginning with a detailed treatment of D-branes and their dynamics and covering string duality M-theory and black hole entropy and discusses many classic results in conformal field theory. The final four chapters are concerned with four-dimensional string theories and have two goals: to show how some of the simplest string models connect with previous ideas for unifying the Standard Model; and to collect many important and beautiful general results on world-sheet and spacetime symmetries.