Welcome to 8.821 for Fall 2007.
Lectures: TR 11-12:30, Room 56-191
Textbook: J. Polchinski, String Theory, 2 vols., Cambridge U. Press.
Highly Recommended Textbook: M. Green, J. Schwarz, E. Witten, Superstring Theory, 2 vols., Cambridge U. Press.
Recommended but hard to find: A. M. Polyakov, Gauge Fields and Strings, Harwood.
D. Lust and S. Theisen, Lectures on String Theory, out of print. Ask me.
Other Resources: M. Peskin's TASI lectures.
P. Ginsparg's CFT lectures.
A. Uranga's lecture notes.
B. Zwiebach, A First Course in String Theory
E. Kiritsis, String Theory in a Nutshell
Beckers, Schwarz, String Theory: A Modern Introduction
Summary: This is a one-semester class about string theory. We will make a compromise between systematically building up the technology of string perturbation theory and developing an understanding of stringy spacetime physics. The latter part of the course will be devoted to string compactification and gauge/gravity duality.
Preparation: I'm going to assume you know enough quantum field theory to know where to look up what you don't understand. I'm also going to assume some familiarity with supersymmetry and general relativity.
Coursework: Exams are silly. Problem sets will posted on the Problem Sets page.
Syllabus: pdf.