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Prospects in Theoretical Physics 2002
Tentative Lecture Schedule

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Week One

Time Mon 7/1 Tues 7/2 Wed 7/3 Thurs 7/4 Fri 7/5
9:00 - 10:30 a.m. Katz
9:15 - 10:45 a.m. Gates Maldacena Katz Katz
10:30 - Noon Johnson
10:45 - 11:15 a.m.

COFFEE BREAK

COFFEE BREAK
11:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. Johnson Gates Johnson Johnson
Noon - 1:30 p.m. July 4th Barbeque
12:45 - 2:00 p.m.

LUNCH

LUNCH
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Peet
2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Maldacena Johnson Peet Peet
3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Witten
3:30 - 4:00 p.m.

TEA BREAK

TEA BREAK
4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Klebanov Peet Klebanov Cvetic

Week Two

Time Mon 7/8 Tues 7/9 Wed 7/10 Thurs 7/11 Fri 7/12
9:15 - 10:45 a.m. Katz Silverstein Silverstein Silverstein Silverstein
Thomas
10:45 - 11:15 a.m.

COFFEE BREAK

11:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. Gates Cvetic Mukhi Witten Mukhi
12:45 - 2:00 p.m.

LUNCH

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Thomas Gubser Thomas Gates Pando-Zayas
3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Cvetic Thomas Steinhardt Steinhardt Witten
4:00 - 4:30 p.m.

TEA BREAK

4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Seiberg   Steinhardt Seiberg Seiberg
B. Greene

 

 

 

 

M. Cvetic:
Lecture description (PDF)

 

S.J. Gates:
1.  4D, N = 1 SG (component introduction), 4D, N = 1 SG and local SUSY in Superspace

2.  10 SUSY YM with and without lowest order open SUSY corrections, dim reduction to the    M(atrix) - theory QM action

3.   10D, N = 1, type-IIA & IIB SG, and GS actions, kappa-SUSY

4.   11D SG, GS membrane action, kappa-SUSY

5.   Closed string and M-theory corrections in superspace.

References: hep-th/9809064 + Lecture description (PDF).

 

S. Gubser:
AdS/CFT and RG flows

 


C. Johnson:
1.   Brief review of construction of strings, classical and quantum. Oscillator expansions, conformal gauge, etc. Brief mention of low energy effective action (supergravity)

2.   Circle compactification and T-duality, for Closed strings and Open strings

3.   D-branes, following from T-duality. Properties. World-Volume properties. DBI action, etc.

4.   R-R couplings. Computation of charges and tensions. Brief mention of supersymmetry to allow listing of the special properties of D-branes in supersymmetric theories. (BPS,mass=charge, etc.) Branes within Branes. Brief mention of supergravity solutions.

Reference: hep-th/0007170



S. Katz:
Lecture Description (PDF)

 

I. Klebanov:
AdS/CFT correspondence. 

1.  Some basic aspects will be reviewed: the relation between absorption by D3-branes and two-point functions in the gauge theory; correspondence between gauge invariant operators and string theory modes; general prescription for calculating correlation functions. 

2.  Some new aspects of the correspondence that arise for highly excited operators will be presented on the example of operators with high spin. Their semiclassical description in AdS space will be compared with the gauge theory.

Suggested reading:

I.R. Klebanov, ``TASI Lectures: Introduction to the AdS/CFT Correspondence,'' hep-th/0009139.

S.S. Gubser, I.R. Klebanov and A.M. Polyakov, ``A Semiclassical Approach to the Gauge/String Correspondence,'' hep-th/0204051.

 

J. Maldacena:
AdS/CFT correspondence.

References:

hep-th/9905111 by Aharony, Gubser, Maldacena, Ooguri and Oz
hep-th/9902022 by Michael R. Douglas and S. Randjbar-Daemi

(For a short introduction before the lectures it is convenient to read just section 3.1 of hep-th/9905111, or hep-th/9902022 .  After the lectures, the following sections of hep-th/9905111 are recommended: 1.1 , 1.2 , 2.1.1 , 2.1.2 , 2.2.1 , 2.2.2 , 2.2.3 , 3.1 , 3.3.1 , 3.5.1, 3.6.1)

 

S. Mukhi:
Noncommutativity in String Theory (Lecture 1 & 2 - PDF, PS)
1.     The B-field in string theory.
2.     DBI and Chern-Simons actions for D-branes in a B-field.
3.     Noncommutative gauge theory.
4.     Noncommutative brane actions (in constant backgrounds).
5.     Open Wilson lines and gauge invariant observables.
6.     Noncommutative brane actions with open Wilson lines.

References:
Abouelsaood, Callan, Nappi, Yost: Nucl.Phys. B280 (599) 1987.
Seiberg and Witten: hep-th/9908142, Seiberg: hep-th/0008013, Das and Rey: hep-th/0008042, Gross, Hashimoto and Itzhaki: hep-th/0008075,  Mukhi and Suryanarayana: hep-th/0009101, hep-th/0104045

 

L. Pando Zayas:
ADS/CFT and PP waves

 

A. Peet:
1.  Introduction to black holes and the black hole information problem: black holes in d = 3+ 1 general relativity with mass, charge, and angular momentum; the BTZ black hole in d = 2+ 1; black hole thermodynamics; the black hole information problem and what string theory has to say about it.

2.  Supergravity and Quantum numbers: supergravity actions in d = 9+ 1; the Dirac Born Infeld + Wess Zumino action for D-branes; conserved quantities; the supersymmetry algebra; a quick rendition of solution-generating.

3.  Branes in supergravity: the BPS D-branes and M-branes; the nonextremal counterparts; horizons and singularities; the Gregory-Laflamme instability (from an up-to-date point of view!); the Correspondence Principle.

4.  Intersecting Branes and Strominger-Vafa: intersecting branes in supergravity and Chern-Simons terms; the d = 4+ 1 and d = 3+ 1 BPS black holes with macroscopic entropy and how to compute entropy from string theory microscopics.

Reference: hep-th/0008241

 

N. Seiberg:
Time-dependent backgrounds

 

E. Silverstein:
Lecture description (PDF)

 

 

P. Steinhardt:
Overview of inflation and cosmology

1.  The Current State of the Universe (Lecture 1 - PowerPoint)
        A. The Hot Big Bang Model
        B. What is the Universe composed of and how do we know?
             a. The case for matter-antimatter asymmetry
             b. The case for flatness
             c. The case for dark matter
             d. The case for dark energy
        C. What do we know about dark matter and dark energy?

2.  The Inflationary Universe (Lecture 2 - PowerPoint)
        A. Problems with the Big Bang
        B. The Inflationary Paradigm
        C. Inflationary Predictions: Density fluctuations and Gravitational Waves
        D. Current and near future tests

3.  The Cyclic Universe (Lecture 3 - PowerPoint)
        A. Problems and Open Issues in Inflation
        B. Does time have a beginning?
        C. The cyclic proposal
        D. Current and near future tests

 

 

S. Thomas:
1.  The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
     (Soft) supersymmetry breaking
     Electroweak symmetry breaking
     The top quark Yukawa quasi-IR fixed point
     (Approximate) symmetries of the MSSM

2.  (Spontaneous) Supersymmetry breaking
     The Goldstino and the scale of SUSY breaking
     The messenger sector

3.  Supersymmetry Phenomenology
     Hadron and Lepton accelerator signals
     R-parity violation
     sflavor violation
     Virtual processes

References:

H. Haber, "Low-Energy Supersymmetry and its Phenomenology," hep-ph/0103095.

M. Peskin, "Beyond the Standard Model" hep-ph/9705479 - sections 3 and 4.

M. Peskin, "The Experimental Investigation of Supersymmetry Breaking," hep-ph/9604339.

 

E. Witten:
Grand Unification, Calabi-Yau  and String Phenomenology

(The notes from Prof. Witten's lectures I and II were distributed at PiTP. The

notes for his Lecture III are not available. However, the content of Lecture

III, on Calabi-Yau compactification of the heterotic string, can be found in

volume II of Green-Schwarz-Witten.)