The World in Eleven Dimensions: Supergravity, Supermembranes and M-Theory

ISBN-13: 9780750306720 / Angielski / Miękka / 1999 / 525 str.

M. J. Duff

Opis

A unified theory embracing all physical phenomena is a major goal of theoretical physics. In the early 1980s, many physicists looked to eleven-dimensional supergravity in the hope that it might provide that elusive superunified theory. In 1984 supergravity was knocked off its pedestal by ten-dimensional superstrings, one-dimensional objects whose vibrational modes represent the elementary particles. Superstrings provided a perturbative finite theory of gravity which, after compactification to four spacetime dimensions, seemed in principle capable of explaining the Standard Model. Despite these major successes, however, nagging doubts persisted about superstrings. Then in 1987 and 1992 the elementary supermembrane and its dual partner, the solitonic superfivebrane, were discovered. These are supersymmetric extended objects with respectively two and five dimensions moving in an eleven-dimensional spacetime.
Over the period since 1996, perturbative superstrings have been superseded by a new nonperturbative called M-theory, which describes supermembranes and superfivebranes, subsumes string theories, and has as its low-energy limit, eleven-dimensional supergravity. M-theory represents the most exciting development in the subject since 1984 when the superstring revolution first burst on the scene.
The first book devoted to M-theory, The World in Eleven Dimensions: Supergravity, Supermembranes and M-Theory brings together seminal papers that have shaped our current understanding of this eleven-dimensional world, from supergravity through supermembranes to M-theory. Each chapter includes commentaries intended to explain the importance of these papers and to place them in a wider perspective. Each chapter also has an extensive bibliography. The book is of interest to researchers and postgraduate students in particle physics, mathematical physics, gravitation, and cosmology.

Recenzje

"It is a pleasure to review this reprint volume which contains almost all major milestones in the 22 year history of this subject. It can serve as a very useful one-spot reference for advanced readers as well as an excellent fast-track introduction to the subject for new entrants … The editor's comments in the beginning of the chapters are quite instructive and as intended do, indeed, give a wider perspective. The list of references at the end of every commentary is extensive though not quite exhaustive."
-Dileep Jatkar, Classical and Quantum Gravity

Spis treści

ELEVEN-DIMENSIONAL SUPERGRAVITYIntroduction Supersymmetries and their representationsNahm 1978Supergravity theory in eleven-dimensionsCremmer, Julia, and Scherk 1978Search for a realistic Kaluza-Klein theoryWitten 1981N=8 supergravity breaks down to N=1Awada, Duff, and Pope 1983Compactification of D=11 supergravity on K3 × T3Duff, Nilsson, and Pope 1983Exact pp-wave solutions of 11-dimensional supergravityHull 1984N=4 remaining supersymmetry in Kaluza-Klein monopole background in D=11 supergravityHan and Koh 1985THE ELEVEN-DIMENSIONAL SUPERMEMBRANEIntroductionSupermembranes and eleven-dimensional supergravityBergshoeff, Sezgin and Townsend 1987On the quantum mechanics of supermembranesde Wit, Hoppe, and Nicolai 1988Multimembrane solutions of d=11 supergravity Duff and Stelle 1991Open p-branes Strominger 1996D-branes from M-branesTownsend 1996THE ELEVEN-DIMENSIONAL SUPERFIVEBRANEIntroductionBlack p-brane solutions of d=11 supergravity theoryGueven 1992 Eleven-dimensional origin of string/string duality: a one loop testDuff, Liu, and Minasian 1995One loop in eleven dimensionsGreen, Gutperle, and Vanhove 1997Five-branes and M-theory on an orbifoldWitten 1996Covariant field equations of the M-theory fivebraneHowe, Sezgin, and West 1997M-THEORY (BEFORE M-THEORY WAS COOL)IntroductionSuperstrings in d=10 from supermembranes in d=11Duff, Howe, Inami, and Stelle 1987Duality rotations in membrane theoryDuff and Lu 1990Unity of superstring dualitiesHull and Townsend 1995The eleven-dimensional supermembrane revisited Townsend 1995INTERSECTING BRANES AND BLACK HOLESIntroductionIntersecting M-branesPapadopoulos and Townsend 1996Harmonic superpositions of M-branesTseytlin 1996The black branes of M-theoryDuff, Lu, and Pope 1996Intersecting M-branes as four-dimensional black holesKlebanov and Tseytlin 1996M-THEORY AND DUALITYIntroductionString theory dynamics in various dimensionsWitten 1995P-brane democracyTownsend 1996The power of M-theorySchwarz 1996Heterotic and Type I string dynamics from eleven dimensionsHorava and Witten 1996M-theory: the theory formerly known as stringsDuff 1996 M-theory as a matrix model: a conjecture Banks, Fischler, Shenker, and Susskind 1997Solutions of four-dimensional field theories via M-theoryWitten 1997The large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravityMaldacena 1998

O autorze

M. J. Duff