These lecture notes were prepared in LaTeX by Bryan Owens, an MIT student. He used handwritten notes taken in class by Kayla Jacobs, an MIT graduate, in producing them. Professor Zwiebach has not thoroughly proofread these notes but believes they will be useful to people that want to know what goes on during lecture and what material gets covered
| SES # | TOPICS | LECTURE NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Announcements, introduction Lorentz transformations Light-cone coordinates |
(PDF) |
| 2 |
Energy and momentum Compact dimensions, orbifolds Quantum mechanics and the square well |
(PDF) |
| 3 |
Relativistic electrodynamics Gauss’ law Gravitation and Planck’s length |
(PDF) |
| 4 | Gravitational potentials, compactification, and large extra dimensions | (PDF) |
| 5 | Nonrelativistic strings and Lagrangian mechanics | (PDF) |
| 6 | The relativistic point particle: Action, reparametrizations, and equations of motion | (PDF) |
| 7 | Area formula for spatial surfaces | (PDF) |
| 8 | Area formula for spatial surfaces (cont.) | (PDF) |
| 9 | Change of variables | (PDF) |
| 10 | Relativistic strings: Nambu-Goto action, equations of motion and boundary conditions | (PDF) |
| 11 |
Static gauge, transverse velocity, and string action Motion of free open string endpoints |
(PDF) |
| 12 |
The sigma-parametrization Equations of motion and virasoro constraints General motion for open strings Rotating open strings |
(PDF) |
| 13 |
Periodicity conditions for the motion of closed strings The formation of cusps Conserved currents in E&M Conserved charges in lagrangian mechanics |
(PDF) |
| 14 |
Momentum charges for the string Lorentz charges for the strings Angular momentum of the rotating string Discuss alpha’ and the string length l_s General gauges: fixing tau and natural units |
(PDF) |
| 15 | Solution of the open string motion in the light-cone gauge | (PDF) |
| 16 | Light-cone fields and particles | (PDF) |
| 17 | Light-cone fields and particles (cont.) | (PDF) |
| 18 | Open strings | (PDF) |
| 19 |
Critical dimension Constructing the state space Tachyons |
(PDF) |
| 20 | Closed strings | (PDF) |
| 21 |
Wrap-up of closed strings Superstrings |
(PDF) |
| 22 | Superstrings (cont.) | (PDF) |
| 23 |
Closed strings Heterotic string theory |
(PDF) |
| 24 |
Dp-branes Parallel Dp’s |
(PDF) |
| 25 | Dp-branes (cont.) | (PDF) |
| 26 | Final exam review | (PDF) |
