Aspects of worldsheet symmetries (FWOTM818)

One of the great successes of twentieth century physics was a profound understanding of three of the four fundamental interactions. Indeed, the electroweak and strong interactions are superbly explained by the Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics. However, the gravitational force, familiar as it may be, is well described at longer distances by general relativity but a fully satisfactory quantum mechanically description – gravity at very short distances – is still lacking. Understanding black holes and physics at the Big Bang requires a theory of quantum gravity. At this moment string theory is the prime candidate to provide such a theory. My project is situated within string theory where elementary particles are tiny strings. A string propagating through space-time sweeps out a two-dimensional surface: the worldsheet. The worldsheet dynamics, described by an intricate quantum field theory in two dimensions, largely determines many properties of string theory. I will study various aspects of the worldsheet, in particular its symmetries including highly non trivial duality symmetries particular to string theory (e.g. strings propagating in spaces of different topologies can be completely equivalent). A main goal of my PhD thesis is the formulation of the worldsheet dynamics in a way that all these symmetries – including stringy dualities – are manifest. Achieving this opens the road to numerous applications, some of which will be addressed in my thesis as well.

Keywords:gravitational force, physics

Disciplines:Classical physics not elsewhere classified