Workshop Recent Developments In String And Field Theory

Workshop Recent Developments in String and Field Theory

New Developments in Quantum Field Theory

Quantum field theory is one of most central constructions in 20th century th- retical physics, and it continues to develop rapidly in many different directions. The aim of the workshop “New Developments in Quantum Field Theory”, which was held in Zakopane, Poland, June 14-20, 1997, was to capture a broad selection of the most recent advances in this field. The conference was sponsored by the Scientific and - vironmental Affairs Division of NATO, as part of the Advanced Research Workshop series. This book contains the proceedings of that meeting. Major topics covered at the workshop include quantized theories of gravity, string theory, conformal field theory, cosmology, field theory approaches to critical phenomena and the renormalization group, matrix models, and field theory techniques applied to the theory of turbulence. One common theme at the conference was the use of large-Nmatrix models to obtain exact results in a variety of different disciplines. For example, it has been known for several years that by taking a suitable double-scaling limit, certain string theories (or two-dimensional quantum gravity coupled to matter) can be re-obtained from the large-Nexpansion of matrix models. There continues to be a large activity in this area of research, which was well reflected by talks given at our workshop. Remarkably, large- Nmatrix models have very recently – just a few months before our meeting – been shown to have yet another deep relation to string theory.

String Theory Research Progress

String theory is a model of fundamental physics whose building blocks are one-dimensional extended objects called strings, rather than the zero-dimensional point particles that form the basis for the standard model of particle physics. The phrase is often used as shorthand for Superstring theory, as well as related theories such as M-theory. By replacing the point-like particles with strings, an apparently consistent quantum theory of gravity emerges. Moreover, it may be possible to 'unify' the known natural forces (gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear and strong nuclear) by describing them with the same set of equations. Studies of string theory have revealed that it predicts higher-dimensional objects called branes. String theory strongly suggests the existence of ten or eleven (in M-theory) space-time dimensions, as opposed to the usual four (three spatial and one temporal) used in relativity theory.