Field Theory and Gravity II

Course Program

Introduction to (extended) supersymmetry and the superHiggs effect. Two important non-linear multiplets: Volkov-Akulov and Born-Infeld. N=1 supergravity in D=4 and its matter couplings. Duality symmetries for interacting fields. Supergravity in D=10,11 and some key compactifications. Introduction to String Theory. An introduction to general D=4 N=1 couplings in Supergravity. An introduction to the AdS/CFT correspondence.

Prof. G. Dall'Agata (U. Padova) will give a series of seminars (14 hours) devoted to Supersymmetry and Supergravity, I will give 14 hours devoted to String Theory and Prof. A. Zaffaroni (U. Milano Bicocca) will give a series of seminars (14 hours) devoted to the AdS/CFT correspondence.

Prof. F. Strocchi will give a series of seminars (10 hours) devoted to symmetry breaking and locality in Field Theory.

Bibliographic references

J. Wess and J. Bagger, "Supersymmetry and Supergravity"

D.Z. Freedman and A. Van Proeyen, "Supergravity"

C. Angelantonj and A. Sagnotti, Open strings,'' Phys. Rept.  371 (2002) 1.

M. B. Green, J.H. Schwarz and E. Witten, Superstring Theory'', 2 vols., Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press (1987);

J. Polchinski, String theory'', 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press (1998);

K. Becker, M. Becker and J.H. Schwarz, String theory and M-theory: A modern introduction'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press (2007).

ExamWritten and oral exam

Prerequisites

This course is designed for the first year of the Ph.D. course.