Skip to main content

Questions tagged [string-theory]

A class of theories that attempt to explain all existing particles (including force carriers) as vibrational modes of extended objects, such as the 1-dimensional fundamental string.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
36 votes
9 answers
18k views

Why does bosonic string theory require 26 spacetime dimensions?

I do not think it is possible really believe or experimentally check (now), but all modern physical doctrines suggest that out world is NOT 4-dimensional, but higher. The least sophisticated ...
Alexander Chervov's user avatar
44 votes
6 answers
12k views

Book on mathematical "rigorous" String Theory?

I've been looking high and low for a mathematical book on String Theory. The only book I could find was "A Mathematical Introduction to String Theory" by Albeverio, Jost, Paycha and ...
71 votes
3 answers
10k views

What exactly is the relation between string theory and conformal field theory?

Maybe it would be helpful for me to summarize the little bit I think know. A 2D CFT assigns a Hilbert space ${\cal H}$ to a circle and an operator $$A(X): {\cal H}^{\otimes n}\rightarrow {\cal H}^{\...
Minhyong Kim's user avatar
  • 13.6k
51 votes
9 answers
9k views

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Physics in Mathematics. Why ? What/how to catch?

Starting from 80-ies the ideas either coming from physics, or by physicists themselves (e.g. Witten) are shaping many directions in mathematics. It is tempting to paraphrase E. Wigner, saying about "...
36 votes
3 answers
5k views

What are D-branes, really?

In the past couple years, I've read many words pertaining to "D-branes" without feeling I have fully comprehended them. In broad terms, I think I get what they're about: They're supposed to serve as ...
Dan Kneezel's user avatar
  • 1,415
25 votes
0 answers
1k views

Calabi-Yau cohomology?

My question here is going to be this -- but I'll give a bit of background to explain myself in a moment: What has been done/what results are available on Calabi-Yau cohomology in degree $n \geq 3$ (...
Urs Schreiber's user avatar
24 votes
0 answers
1k views

p-Adic String Theory and the String-orientation of Topological Modular Forms (tmf)

I am going to ask a question, at the end below, on whether anyone has tried to make more explicit what should be, it seems to me, a close relation between p-adic string theory and the refinement of ...
Urs Schreiber's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

New series for $\pi$ from string theory

This is a direct followup to the post Possible new series for $\pi$ by Timothy Chow and its numerous answers and comments. Using another formula in the same string theory paper by Saha and Sinha one ...
Henri Cohen's user avatar
  • 13.1k
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Free Boson Correlator $ \langle X(z)X(w) \rangle =- \ln |z - w| $

In physics papers, the massless free boson has a definition involving an action: $$ S(X) = \frac{1}{8\pi} \int d\sigma^2\, \partial X \overline{\partial X}$$ The random functions $X(z)$ are ...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.8k
9 votes
4 answers
4k views

Role for generalized geometries in string theory

What role do generalized geometries (in terms of Dirac structures, for instance, symplectic, Poisson, complex, and generalized complex structures in the sense of Hitchin, Cavalcanti, and Gualtieri) ...
Yaniel Cabrera's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
320 views

The space-time dimension of the N-superstring theory?

Let $\mathfrak{W}$ be the Lie algebra generated by $d_{n} = ie^{in\theta}\frac{d}{d\theta}$ and $\mathfrak{Vir} = \mathfrak{W} \oplus C \mathbb{C}$ its central extension: $$ [L_m,L_n]=(m-n)L_{m+n}+\...
Sebastien Palcoux's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
239 views

GSO (Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive) projection and its Mathematics?

GSO (Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive) projection is an ingredient used in constructing a consistent model in superstring theory. The projection is a selection of a subset of possible vertex operators in the ...
wonderich's user avatar
  • 10.5k
6 votes
1 answer
726 views

Degree-3 curves on the Calabi–Yau quintic

Robbert Dijkgraaf said,1 concerning the simplest Calabi–Yau space, the quintic: "A classical result from the 19th century states that the number of lines — degree-one curves — is equal to 2,875. ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
613 views

Proof of the general expression for anomaly in a CFT and its partition function

I think the statement is that for any dimensional CFT the following is true, $$\langle T^{\mu}_\mu \rangle = \sum B_n I_n - 2(-1)^{d/2}AE_d,$$ where $E_d$ is the `"Euler density" and $I_n$ are the ...
user6818's user avatar
  • 1,893
5 votes
0 answers
122 views

GSO projection and $H^d(M, \mathbb{Z}_2)$

This follows up the comment which suggests that asking the later 2nd part of subquestion in "GSO (Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive) projection and its Mathematics" as a new different question GSO (...
wonderich's user avatar
  • 10.5k