Quantum Aspects of Gauge Theories, Supersymmetry and Unification

The articles in this book are written versions of talks presented at a conference organized by the TMR network in Corfu. The main theme of the conference was the interconnection between string theory and gauge theory. These very recent developments draw from many aspects of string theory, supergravity and supersymmetric gauge field theory. For students starting their research there is a great deal of background material that they have to absorb in order to be able to follow current developments. With this in mind the editors have included pedagogical lectures on background material and recent developments. Extensive lecture notes by Bernard de Witt, Renate Kallosh, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Michael Green, Eliezer Rabinovici and John Schwarz make these proceedings a valuable reference for a long time to come. The book addresses researchers as well as students.
TOC: Introduction to M Theory and AdS/CFT Duality.- Interconnections Between Type II Superstrings, M Theory and N = 4 Yang-Mills.- Supermembranes and Super Matrix Models.- Black Holes, Branes and Superconformal Symmetry.- Old and New Approaches to Non-perturbative Gauge Dynamics.- Strings, Matrices and Black Holes.- Orbifolds of AdS3 and Fixpoints of the CFT.- Holography and the Weyl Anomaly.- The QCD String and Generalized Wave Equation.- On Supergravity Duals of N = 1 SCFT in Four Dimensions.- On (Mulit-)Center Branes and Exact String Vacua.- 2D Yang-Mills Theory as a Matrix String Theory ...