M-theory

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Programme theme

The two main goals of current work in fundamental physics are (i) to find a quantum theory of gravity that avoids the inconsistencies that arise from trying to reconcile Einstein's theory with quantum mechanics, and (ii) to find a unified theory of all the forces and particles of nature. Superstring theory provides a very promising candidate for a theory that could achieve both of these aims simultaneously. Recent discoveries have revealed that all five superstring theories arise as sectors of a single all-encompassing structure, which has come to be known as "M-theory". Much has been learned about those special sectors of M-theory which can be described by string theories or supergravity theories, and of the remarkable duality symmetries that relate such sectors, but much of M-theory remains a mystery. We have as yet no definition or formulation of the theory, and do not even know what the fundamental degrees of freedom should be. It seems likely that our notions of space and time will have to be modified, bringing in new mathematical structures such as non-commutative geometry, which has recently been shown to play an important role. An important clue has been found in the recent discovery that M-theory, at least in certain backgrounds, has a "holographic" description in terms of a simple non-gravitational gauge theory or matrix theory.

The principal aim of the programme is to investigate the structure of M-theory, with an aim of seeking its fundamental formulation. The main themes to be explored include:

Branes, Geometry and Dualities. Geometry of M-theory solutions and their modifications due to branes; D-geometry and conformal field theory. Supersymmetric geometry and calibrations. Duality symmetries, particularly in cases preserving only a minimal amount of supersymmetry, and mirror symmetries. Non-BPS branes and K-theory. (2,0) theory in 6 dimensions and the non-abelian generalisation of anti-symmetric tensor gauge theory; little string theories. String field theory.
Holography. Formulation of quantum gravity or M-theory in D dimensions as a non-gravitational theory in D-1 dimensions. Anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theory; matrix theory; general backgrounds and non-conformal field theories.
Mathematical Structures of M-theory. Non-commutative geometry; quantum geometry and topology change; hyperbolic algebras, vertex algebras and exotic algebraic structures; K-theory.
Quantum Gravity and M-theory. Implications of M-theory for key problems in quantum gravity. Black holes and microscopic origin of Beckenstein-Hawking entropy; singularities; information loss; cosmology; thermodynamics.

Strings 2002

At the end of the Newton programme, the annual international conference in M/string theory will be held in Cambridge, 15-20 July; for information on Strings 2002, see www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/strings2002/

Click here to download the programme's final scientific report

Preprints

Title	Year	Programme
Stringy negative-tension branes and the second law of thermodynamics Authors: Simon Ross, D Marolf Download PDF	2001	MTH
M-Theory solutions with AdS factors Authors: Nakwoo Kim, Stathis Pakis, ET Al, JP Gauntlett Download PDF	2001	MTH
Effective supergravity for supergravity domain walls Authors: ND Lambert, M Cvetic Download PDF	2001	MTH
Phenomenology of a three-family standard-like string model Authors: P Langacker, G Shiu, M Cvetic Download PDF	2001	MTH
A three-family standard-like orientifold model: Yukawa couplings and hierarchy Authors: P Langacker, G Shiu, M Cvetic Download PDF	2001	MTH
Asymptotic symmetries of AdS$_2$ Branes Authors: C Bachas Download PDF	2001	MTH
T-duality, and the K-theoretic partition function of type IIA superstring theory Authors: Natalia Saulina, Greg Moore Download PDF	2001	MTH
Strings in time-dependent orbifolds Authors: Greg Moore, N Seiberg, H Liu Download PDF	2001	MTH
Special holonomy spaces and M-Theory Authors: GW Gibbons, H Lu, ET Al, M Cvetic Download PDF	2001	MTH
Singularity resolution and gravitational Chern-Simons terms Authors: M Cvetic, FA Brito, A Naqvi Download PDF	2001	MTH
Bianchi IX self-dual Einstein metrics and singular G$_2$ Manifolds Authors: ET Al, M Cvetic, GW Gibbons, H Lu Download PDF	2001	MTH
Kappa-symmetric non-abelian Born-Infeld actions in three dimensions Authors: JM Drummond, PS Howe, Ulf Lindstrom Download PDF	2001	MTH

Workshops

MTHW02

M-theory, gravity and geometry

11 February 2002 to 15 February 2002

MTHW01

Clay Mathematics Institute School on geometry and string theory

24 March 2002 to 20 April 2002

Seminars

Wednesday 6th February 2002
11:30 to 12:30	Ofer Aharony University of California, Irvine and Weizmann Institute of Science Non-local string theories	Room 1

Thursday 7th February 2002
14:00 to 15:30	Unknown	Room 1

Tuesday 19th February 2002
14:15 to 15:30	Moduli stabilisation from fluxes	Room 1

Wednesday 20th February 2002
17:00 to 17:30	Video of "Horizion" programme on M-Theory	Room 1

Thursday 21st February 2002
14:15 to 15:30	Antoine Van Proeyen Five dimensional supersymmetry and quaternionic structures	Room 1

Tuesday 26th February 2002
14:15 to 15:30	De Sitter holography and the cosmic microwave background	Room 1

Thursday 28th February 2002
14:15 to 15:30	De Sitter space, supergravity and M-Theory	Room 1

Wednesday 6th March 2002
11:30 to 12:30	Superstrings in plane wave backgrounds	Room 1

Thursday 7th March 2002
14:15 to 15:30	Monstrous branes	Room 1

Tuesday 12th March 2002
14:15 to 15:30	Domain walls in nine dimensions and their ten dimensional origin	Room 1

Thursday 14th March 2002
14:15 to 15:30	Marcos Marino Towards vacuum superstring field theory	Room 1

Tuesday 19th March 2002
14:15 to 15:30	Petr Horava University of California The big click: ekpyrosis by remote control in heterotic m-theory	Room 1

Thursday 21st March 2002
14:15 to 15:30	String compactifications with background fluxes	Room 1

Tuesday 23rd April 2002
14:15 to 15:30	Piljin Yi D-brane probes and closed string tachyons in flux brane backgrounds	Room 1

Thursday 25th April 2002
14:15 to 15:30	NS5-branes, T-duality and worldsheet instantons	Room 1

Tuesday 30th April 2002
14:15 to 15:30	de Sitter space in (stringy) supergravity	Room 1

Thursday 2nd May 2002
11:00 to 12:30	New phenomena in string compactifications with flux	Room 1
14:15 to 15:30	Clean time-dependent string backgrounds from bubble baths	Room 1

Tuesday 7th May 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Christopher Pope Texas A&M University An M-theory unification of the deformed and resolved conifolds	Room 1

Thursday 9th May 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Murat Gunaydin The spectra of PP-wave limits of M/Superstring theory compactified over spheres and holography	Room 1

Tuesday 14th May 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Paul Aspinwall Duke University D-brane stability and monodromy	Room 1

Thursday 16th May 2002
11:30 to 12:30	Paul Aspinwall Duke University Introduction to derived categories for physicists	Room 1
14:15 to 15:15	Standard model and GUT's from orientifolds and $G_2$ holonomy	Room 1

Tuesday 21st May 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Amanda Peet University of Toronto S-branes	Room 1

Thursday 23rd May 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Washington Taylor Acclarogen Limited Branes and vacua in open string field theory	Room 1

Tuesday 28th May 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Dan Freedman Acclarogen Limited Perturbative gauge theory and string interactions	Room 1

Thursday 30th May 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Tachyon condensation and black hole entropy	Room 1

Wednesday 5th June 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Brane in AdS and pp-wave spacetimes	Room 1

Thursday 6th June 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Toric duality, Seiberg duality and Picard-Lefshetz transformations	Room 1

Friday 7th June 2002
15:00 to 16:00	Paolo Di Vecchia NORDITA W=1 and N=2 refer Yang-Mills theories from wrapped branes	Room 1

Tuesday 11th June 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Anti de Sitter branes and holography	Room 1

Thursday 13th June 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Borcherds dualities in supergravities	Room 1

Tuesday 18th June 2002
14:15 to 15:15	N=1 holographic R.G fixed points and their Penrose limits	Room 1

Thursday 20th June 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Thomas Banks de Sitter space and supersymmetry breaking	Room 1

Tuesday 25th June 2002
15:30 to 16:30	Worldsheet derivation of a large $N$ duality	Room 2

Thursday 27th June 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Ashoke Sen Harish-Chandra Research Institute Tachyon dynamics	Room 2

Wednesday 3rd July 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Nikita Nekrasov IHES Seiberg-Witten prepotential from instanton counting	Room 2

Thursday 4th July 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Colliding Kaluza-Klein bubbles	Room 1

Tuesday 9th July 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Steve Giddings Black hole formation at high energies	Room 1

Wednesday 10th July 2002
14:15 to 15:15	Juan Maldacena Harvard University Introduction to pp-waves	Room 1

Thursday 11th July 2002
16:30 to 17:30	Juan Maldacena Harvard University Introduction to pp-waves	Room 1

Organisers

Robert Henricus Dijkgraaf University of Helsinki
Michael Douglas
Jerome Peter Gauntlett Queen Mary University of London
Chris Hull Queen Mary University of London

Speakers

Ofer Aharony University of California, Irvine and Weizmann Institute of Science
Paul Aspinwall Duke University
Thomas Banks
Paolo Di Vecchia NORDITA
Dan Freedman Acclarogen Limited
Steve Giddings
Murat Gunaydin
Petr Horava University of California
Juan Maldacena Harvard University
Marcos Marino
Nikita Nekrasov IHES
Amanda Peet University of Toronto
Christopher Pope Texas A&M University
Ashoke Sen Harish-Chandra Research Institute
Washington Taylor Acclarogen Limited
Antoine Van Proeyen
Piljin Yi

Show All

Programme theme

Strings 2002

Preprints

Stringy negative-tension branes and the second law of thermodynamics

M-Theory solutions with AdS factors

Effective supergravity for supergravity domain walls

Phenomenology of a three-family standard-like string model

A three-family standard-like orientifold model: Yukawa couplings and hierarchy

Asymptotic symmetries of AdS$_2$ Branes

T-duality, and the K-theoretic partition function of type IIA superstring theory

Strings in time-dependent orbifolds

Special holonomy spaces and M-Theory

Singularity resolution and gravitational Chern-Simons terms

Bianchi IX self-dual Einstein metrics and singular G$_2$ Manifolds

Kappa-symmetric non-abelian Born-Infeld actions in three dimensions