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An introduction to string theory and its spectrum

Lecture log

Academic year 2025/2026
Lecturer Chrysoula Markou

Lecture

  • 14 Jan 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    1. Introduction. Why string theory? Field-theory amplitudes and UV divergences. A refresher on the Gamma function and its properties. The Veneziano amplitude.

  • 21 Jan 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    2. Classical strings. From a point particle to the bosonic string. The Nambu-Goto action. The Polyakov action and its symmetries. The classical Virasoro constraints. 3. Quantum strings. Old-covariant quantisation. The Fock space of string states. The level-by-level construction of the string spectrum in the old-covariant way. Null states. Weinberg states.

  • 28 Jan 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    4. The level-by-level construction of the string spectrum in the light-cone. Conformal field theory basics. The worldsheet CFT. Vertex operators. The Del Giudice, Di Vecchia, Fubini (DDF) method for the construction of the spectrum.

  • 18 Feb 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    5. Regge trajectories. A refresher on Young diagrams and polarisations. Howe duality basics. An efficient and covariant technology for the construction of entire subleading Regge trajectories.

  • 25 Feb 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    6. More on the worldsheet CFT. The ghost CFT. The rudiments of the computation of tree-level string scattering amplitudes. The method of the generating functional.

  • 04 Mar 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    7. The tree-level 3-gluon amplitude using Wick's theorem and Yang-Mills from a low-energy string. The generating functional for the leading Regge trajectory and the leading Regge-tachyon-tachyon amplitude. 8. The calculation of the tree-level 4-tachyon (open string) amplitude: the Veneziano amplitude. Bulk and boundary CFTs. The Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude.

  • 11 Mar 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    9. The Kawai-Lewellen-Tye relations between closed and open string amplitudes and their proof. The tree-level 3-graviton amplitude and General Relativity from a low-energy string. The double copy.

  • 18 Mar 2026 (2h 00m)

    CHRYSOULA Markou - Course (teaching activity) - Face to face

    10. The Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz superstring. The level-by-level construction of the superstring spectrum. An efficient and covariant technology for the construction of entire subleading Regge trajectories of the superstring.

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