　　String theory is one of the most exciting and challenging areas of modern theoretical physics. It was developed in the late 1960s for the purpose of de-scribing the strong nuclear force. Problems were encountered that prevented this program from attaining plete success. In particular, it was realized that the dpectrum of a fundamental string contains an undesired massless spin-two particle. Quantum chromodynamics eventually proved to be the correct theory for describing the strong force and the properties of hadrons,New doors opened for string theory when in 1974 it was proposed to identify the massless spin-two particle in the string's spectrum with the graviton, the quantum of gravitation. String theory became then the most promising can-didate for a quantum theory of gravity unified with the other forces and has developed into one of the most fascinating the6ries of high-energy physics.

preface
1 introduction
　1.1 historical origins
　1.2 general features
　1.3 basic string theory
　1.4 modern developments in superstring theory
2 the bosonic string
　2.1 p-brane actions
　2.2 the string action
　2.3 string sigma-model action: the classical theory
　2.4 canonical quantization
　2.5 light-cone gauge quantization
3 conformal field theory and string interactions
　3.1 conformal field theory
　3.2 brst quantization
　3.3 background fields
　3.4 vertex operators
　3.5 the structure of string perturbation theory
　3.6 the linear-dilaton vacuum and noncritical strings
　3.7 witten's open-string field theory
4 strings with world-sheet supersymmetry
　4.1 ramond-neveu-schwarz strings
　4.2 global world-sheet supersymmetry
　4.3 constraint equations mad conformal invaxiance
　4.4 boundary conditions and mode expansions
　4.5 canonical quantization of the rns string
　4.6 light-cone gauge quantization of the rns string
　4.7 scft and brst
5 strings with space-time supersymmetry
　5.1 the do-brane action
　5.2 the supersymmetric string action
　5.3 quantization of the gs action
　5.4 gauge anomalies and their cancellation
6 t-duality and d-branes
　6.1 the bosonic string and dp-branes
　6.2 d-branes in type ii superstring theories
　6.3 type i superstring theory
　6.4 t-duality in the presence of background fields
　6.5 world-volume actions for d-branes
7 the heterotic string
　7.1 nonabelian gauge symmetry in string theory
　7.2 fermionic construction of the heterotic string
　7.3 toroidal pactification
　7.4 bosonic construction of the heterotic string
8 m-theory and string duality
　8.1 low-energy effective actions
　8.2 s-duality
　8.3 m-theory
　8.4 m-theory dualities
9 string geometry
　9.1 orbifolds
　9.2 calabi-yau manifolds: mathematical properties
　9.3 examples of calabi-yau manifolds
　9.4 calabi-yau pactifications of the heterotic string
　9.5 deformations of calabi-yau manifolds
　9.6 special geometry
　9.7 type iia and type iib on calabi-yau three-folds
　9.8 nonperturbative effects in calabi-yau pactifications
　9.9 mirror symmetry
　9.10 heterotic string theory on calabi-yau three-folds
　9.11 k3 pactifications and more string dualities
　9.12 manifolds with g2 and spin(7) holonomy
10 flux pactifications
　10.1 flux pactifications and calabi-yau four-folds
　10.2 flux pactifications of the type iib theory
　10.3 moduli stabilization
　10.4 fluxes, torsion and heterotic strings
　10.5 the strongly coupled heterotic string
　10.6 the landscape
　10.7 fluxes and cosmology
11 black holes in string theory
　11.1 black holes in general relativity
　11.2 black-hole thermodynamics
　11.3 black holes in string theory
　11.4 statistical derivation of the entropy
　11.5 the attractor mechanism
　11.6 small bps black holes in four dimensions
12 gauge theory/string theory dualities
　12.1 black-brane solutions in string theory and m-theory
　12.2 matrix theory
　12.3 the ads/cft correspondence
　12.4 gauge/string duality for the conifold and generalizations
　12.5 plane-wave space-times and their duals
　12.6 geometric transitions
bibliographic discussion
bibliography
index