爱因斯坦的后半生一直致力于将引力理论，纳入量子理论体系，但没有成功。上世纪80年代，由于在弦理论研究方面取得的巨大成果，使研究者看到新的希望。这被称为“第一次超弦革命”。1995年，弦理论研究迎来了第二次革命。其具有划时代意义的发现是D-膜（brane）和M-理论。它为人类提供了探索强耦合超弦理论的强有力工具。后继的研究表明，它也是人类理解诸如黑洞热力学微观机制、大N规范理论与引力理论之间全息对偶等深刻而未解难题的必由之路。

本书详细介绍膜理论的方方面面。尤其对初学者，它是J.Polchinski同类专著（String Theory, 已由世图引进）极好的补充。

List of inserts

Preface

1 Overview and overture

 1.1 The classical dynamics of geometry

 1.2 Gravitons and photons

 1.3 Beyond classical gravity: perturbative strings

 1.4 Beyond perturbative strings: branes

 1.5 The quantum dynamics of geometry

 1.6 Things to do in the meantime

 1.7 On with the show 2 Relativistic strings

 2.1 Motion of classical point particles

 2.2 Classical bosonic strings

 2.3 Quantised bosonic strings

 2.4 The sphere, the plane and the vertex operator

 2.5 Chan-Paton factors

 2.6 Unoriented strings

 2.7 Strings in curved backgrounds

 2.8 A quick look at geometry

3 A closer look at the world-sheet

 3.1 Conformal invariance

 3.2 Revisiting the relativistic string

 3.3 Fixing the conformal gauge

 3.4 The closed string partition function

4 Strings on circles and T-duality

 4.1 Fields and strings on a circle

 4.2 T-duality for closed strings

 4.3 A special radius: enhanced gauge symmetry

 4.4 The circle partition function

 4.5 Toriodal compactifications

 4.6 More on enhanced gauge symmetry

 4.7 Another special radius: bosonisation

 4.8 String theory on an orbifold

 4.9 T-duality for open strings: D-branes

 4.10 D-brane collective coordinates

 4.11 T-duality for unoriented strings: orientifolds

5 Background fields and world-volume actions

 5.1 T-duality in background fields

 5.2 A first look at the D-brane world-volume action

 5.3 The Dirac-Born-Infeld action

 5.4 The action of T-duality

 5.5 Non-Abelian extensions

 5.6 D-branes and gauge theory

 5.7 BPS lumps on the world-volume

6 D-brane tension and boundary states

 6.1 The D-brane tension

 6.2 The orientifold tension

 6.3 The boundary state formalism

7 Supersymmetric strings

 7.1 The three basic superstring theories

 7.2 The two basic heterotic string theories

 7.3 The ten dimensional supergravities

 7.4 Heterotic toroidal compactifications

 7.5 Superstring toroidal compactification

 7.6 A superstring orbifold: discovering the K3 manifold

8 Supersymmetric strings and T-duality

 8.1 T-duality of supersymmetric strings

 8.2 D-branes as BPS solitons

 8.3 The D-brane charge and tension

 8.4 The orientifold charge and tension

 8.5 Type I from type IIB, revisited

 8.6 Dirac charge quantisation

 8.7 D-branes in type I

9 World-volume curvature couplings

 9.1 Tilted D-branes and branes within branes

 9.2 Anomalous gauge couplings

 9.3 Characteristic classes and invariant polynomials

 9.4 Anomalous curvature couplings

 9.5 A relation to anomalies

 9.6 D-branes and K-theory

 9.7 Further non-Abelian extensions

 9.8 Further curvature couplings

10 The geometry of D-branes

 10.1 A look at black holes in four dimensions

 10.2 The geometry of D-branes

 10.3 Probing p-brane geometry with Dp-branes

 10.4 T-duality and supergravity solutions

11 Multiple D-branes and bound states

 11.1 Dp and Dp from boundary conditions

 11.2 The BPS bound for the Dp-Dp' system

 11.3 Bound states of fundamental strings and D-strings

 11.4 The three-string junction

 11.5 Aspects of D-brane bound states

12 Strong coupling and string duality

 12.1 Type IIB/type IIB duality

 12.2 SO(32) Type I/heterotic' duality

 12.3 Dual branes from 10D string-string duality

 12.4 Type IIA/M-theory duality

 12.5 Es x Es heterotic string/M-theory duality

 12.6 M2-branes and M5-branes

 12.7 U-duality

13 D-branes and geometry I

 13.1 D-branes as probes of ALE spaces

 13.2 Fractional D-branes and wrapped D-branes

 13.3 Wrapped, fractional and stretched branes

 13.4 D-branes as instantons

 13.5 D-branes as monopoles

 13.6 The D-brane dielectric effect

14 K3 orientifolds and compactification

 14.1 ZN orientifolds and Chan-Paton factors

 14.2 Loops and tadpoles for ALE ZM singularities

 14.3 Solving the tadpole equations

 14.4 Closed string spectra

 14.5 Open string spectra

 14.6 Anomalies for N=1 in six dimensions

15 D-branes and geometry II

 15.1 Probing p with D(p-4)

 15.2 Probing six-branes: Kaluza-Klein monopoles and M-theory

 15.3 The moduli space of 3D supersymmetric gauge theory

 15.4 Wrapped branes and the enhangon mechanism

 15.5 The consistency of excision in supergravity

 15.6 The moduli space of pure glue in 3D

16 Towards M- and F-theory

 16.1 The type IIB string and F-theory

 16.2 M-theory origins of F-theory

 16.3 Matrix theory

17 D-branes and black holes

 17.1 Black hole thermodynamics

 17.2 The Euclidean action calculus

 17.3 D=5 Reissner-NordstrSm black holes

 17.4 Near horizon geometry

 17.5 Replacing T4 with K3

18 D-branes, gravity and gauge theory

 18.1 The AdS/CFT correspondence

 18.2 The correspondence at finite temperature

 18.3 The correspondence with a chemical potential

 18.4 The holographic principle

19 The holographic renormalisation group

 19.1 Renormalisation group flows from gravity

 19.2 Flowing on the Coulomb branch

 19.3 An N=1 gauge dual RG flow

 19.4 An N=2 gauge dual RG flow and the enhangon

 19.5 Beyond gravity duals

20 Taking stock

References

Index