The Early Years of String Theory: A Personal Perspective

Abstract

This article surveys some of the highlights in the development of string theory through the first superstring revolution in 1984. The emphasis is on topics in which the author was involved, especially the observation that critical string theories provide consistent quantum theories of gravity and the proposal to use string theory to construct a unified theory of all fundamental particles and forces.

34 pages; Based on a lecture presented at the Galileo Galilei Institute, to be published in a volume entitled "The Birth of String Theory" ; v2: references added; v3: sections 5 and 6 expanded

References in corpus (4)

• Decoupling Supergravity from the Superstring
• The N=4 string is the same as the N=2 string
• String Theory Origins of Supersymmetry
• String Theory: The Early Years

Cited by in corpus (8)

• String theory: a perspective over the last 25 years
• Equivariant Cohomotopy implies orientifold tadpole cancellation
• Twistorial Cohomotopy implies Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation
• The Early History of String Theory and Supersymmetry
• Probing the Frontiers of QCD
• Beyond the Standard Model for Montaneros
• Generalised Proper Time as a Unifying Basis for Models with Two Right-Handed Neutrinos
• The Structure of Matter in Spacetime from the Substructure of Time