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15 - Toward Superstrings

from Part IV - Anomalies and Spacetimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2026

Piljin Yi
Affiliation:
Korea Institute for Advanced Study
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Summary

The content of this last chapter should be regarded merely as whetting the appetite for superstring theory at large. We explore the bare basic structure of spacetime theories as implied by certain models of supersymmetric fundamental strings, with emphasis on bosonic fields and their mutual interactions. Spacetime supersymmetries enter conveniently in determining the spacetime field content, their kinetic terms, and the lowest interaction among them. On the other hand, there are also higher-derivative "topological" terms that are fixed entirely by cancelations of potential gauge and gravitational anomalies combined with various "dualities" that are hallmarks of superstring theories. Starting from the mysterious M-theory in eleven-dimensional spacetime, we derive type IIA and IIB theories in ten dimensions by such dualities, and keep track of "topological" terms. After going through various dimensionally reduced models with the same number of supercharges kept, we close with type I theories and the celebrated Green-Schwarz mechanism.

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  • Toward Superstrings
  • Piljin Yi, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
  • Book: Geometric Quantum Field Theories
  • Online publication: 05 September 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009575591.016
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  • Toward Superstrings
  • Piljin Yi, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
  • Book: Geometric Quantum Field Theories
  • Online publication: 05 September 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009575591.016
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Toward Superstrings
  • Piljin Yi, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
  • Book: Geometric Quantum Field Theories
  • Online publication: 05 September 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009575591.016
Available formats
×