D膜

List of inserts
Preface
1 Overview and overture
1.1 The classical dynamics of geometry
1.2 Gravitons and photons
1.3 Beyond classical gravity: perturbative strings
1.4 Beyond perturbative strings: branes
1.5 The quantum dynamics of geometry
1.6 Things to do in the meantime
1.7 On with the show
2 Relativistic strings
2.1 Motion of classical point particles
2.2 Classical bosonic strings
2.3 Quantised bosonic strings
2.4 The sphere, the plane and the vertex operator
2.5 Chan-Paton factors
2.6 Unoriented strings
2.7 Strings in curved backgrounds
2.8 A quick look at geometry
3 A closer look at the world-sheet
3.1 Conformal invariance
3.2 Revisiting the relativistic string
3.3 Fixing the conformal gauge
3.4 The closed string partition function
4 Strings on circles and T-duality
4.1 Fields and strings on a circle
4.2 T-duality for closed strings
4.3 A special radius: enhanced gauge symmetry
4.4 The circle partition function
4.5 Toriodal compactifications
4.6 More on enhanced gauge symmetry
4.7 Another special radius: bosonisation
4.8 String theory on an orbifold
4.9 T-duality for open strings: D-branes
4.10 D-brane collective coordinates
4.11 T-duality for unoriented strings: orientifolds
5 Background fields and world-volume actions
5.1 T-duality in background fields
5.2 A first look at the D-brane world-volume action
5.3 The Dirac-Born-Infeld action
5.4 The action of T-duality
5.5 Non-Abelian extensions
5.6 D-branes and gauge theory
5.7 BPS lumps on the world-volume
6 D-brane tension and boundary states
6.1 The D-brane tension
6.2 The orientifold tension
6.3 The boundary state formalism
7 Supersymmetric strings
7.1 The three basic superstring theories
7.2 The two basic heterotic string theories
7.3 The ten dimensional supergravities
7.4 Heterotic toroidal compactifications
7.5 Superstring toroidal compactification
7.6 A superstring orbifold: discovering the K3 manifold
8 Supersymmetric strings and T-duality
8.1 T-duality of supersymmetric strings
8.2 D-branes as BPS solitons
8.3 The D-brane charge and tension
8.4 The orientifold charge and tension
8.5 Type I from type IIB, revisited
8.6 Dirac charge quantisation
8.7 D-branes in type I
9 World-volume curvature couplings
9.1 Tilted D-branes and branes within branes
9.2 Anomalous gauge couplings
9.3 Characteristic classes and invariant polynomials
9.4 Anomalous curvature couplings
9.5 A relation to anomalies
9.6 D-branes and K-theory
9.7 Further non-Abelian extensions
9.8 Further curvature couplings
10 The geometry of D-branes
10.1 A look at black holes in four dimensions
10.2 The geometry of D-branes
10.3 Probing p-brane geometry with Dp-branes
10.4 T-duality and supergravity solutions
11 Multiple D-branes and bound states
11.1 Dp and Dp from boundary conditions
11.2 The BPS bound for the Dp-Dp' system
11.3 Bound states of fundamental strings and D-strings
11.4 The three-string junction
11.5 Aspects of D-brane bound states
12 Strong coupling and string duality
12.1 Type IIB/type IIB duality
12.2 SO(32) Type I/heterotic' duality
12.3 Dual branes from 10D string-string duality
12.4 Type IIA/M-theory duality
12.5 Es x Es heterotic string/M-theory duality
12.6 M2-branes and M5-branes
12.7 U-duality
13 D-branes and geometry I
13.1 D-branes as probes of ALE spaces
13.2 Fractional D-branes and wrapped D-branes
13.3 Wrapped, fractional and stretched branes
13.4 D-branes as instantons
13.5 D-branes as monopoles
13.6 The D-brane dielectric effect
14 K3 orientifolds and compactification
14.1 ZN orientifolds and Chan-Paton factors
14.2 Loops and tadpoles for ALE ZM singularities
14.3 Solving the tadpole equations
14.4 Closed string spectra
14.5 Open string spectra
14.6 Anomalies for N=1 in six dimensions
15 D-branes and geometry II
15.1 Probing p with D(p-4)
15.2 Probing six-branes: Kaluza-Klein monopoles and M-theory
15.3 The moduli space of 3D supersymmetric gauge theory
15.4 Wrapped branes and the enhangon mechanism
15.5 The consistency of excision in supergravity
15.6 The moduli space of pure glue in 3D
16 Towards M- and F-theory
16.1 The type IIB string and F-theory
16.2 M-theory origins of F-theory
16.3 Matrix theory
17 D-branes and black holes
17.1 Black hole thermodynamics
17.2 The Euclidean action calculus
17.3 D=5 Reissner-NordstrSm black holes
17.4 Near horizon geometry
17.5 Replacing T4 with K3
18 D-branes, gravity and gauge theory
18.1 The AdS/CFT correspondence
18.2 The correspondence at finite temperature
18.3 The correspondence with a chemical potential
18.4 The holographic principle
19 The holographic renormalisation group
19.1 Renormalisation group flows from gravity
19.2 Flowing on the Coulomb branch
19.3 An N=1 gauge dual RG flow
19.4 An N=2 gauge dual RG flow and the enhangon
19.5 Beyond gravity duals
20 Taking stock
References
Index