String Theory Seminar

Henry Li, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo

“Superstrings”

Using the machinery of conformal field theory and BRST quantization, we can now easily add fermions into the stringy picture by adding supersymmetric partners of the two dynamical fields Xμ and g that we had in purely bosonic string theory. We shall see how the boundary conditions of these two new fields give rise to fermions, and how they force the tachyonic ground state to be removed via GSO projection. Finally, we discuss the various flavors of supersymmetric string theory – type I, type II, and heterotic – and how they arise.

MC 5403