PSI 2018/2019 - String Theory Review (Gaiotto)

General considerations on String theory (String perturbation theory, D-branes, dualities,....)

String perturbation theory: Nambu-Goto action, Polyakov action, gauge fixing

The two-dimensional free boson: Fock space, symmetries, stress energy tensor, Virasoro algebra

The string spectrum; BRST quantization, cohomological field theory, a basic model

BRST quantization: a toy model, gauge fixing; BRST quantization for string theory, ghosts in String.

Ghost Hilbert space 

States and Operators

The state-operator map and sphere correlation function

An interesting scattering amplitue: n-point tree-level amplitude

Propagation of strings in curved space-time; Compactification and T-duality.

Introduction to D-branes

D-branes; Dirichlet b.c, Neumann b.c.