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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

Sergio Albeverio
Affiliation:
Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany
Jurgen Jost
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in den Naturwissenschaften, Leipzig
Sylvie Paycha
Affiliation:
Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg
Sergio Scarlatti
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata'
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Summary

This book is intended as an introduction to certain global analytic and probabilistic aspects of string theory. Nowadays string theory is a domain where mathematics and physics meet, and proceed together concerning certain aspects. However, the theory itself is far from being complete, in fact it is suspended between purely heuristic Ansätze with little hope of mathematical justification and very advanced mathematical ideas. Our aim has been to bring together as far as presently possible the differential–geometric aspects (related to theory of harmonic maps, infinite dimensional differential geometry, Riemann surfaces) and the measure theoretical and probabilistic aspects one encounters when trying to give a sense to the heuristic “Feynman path integrals”, so often used not only by physicists but also by mathematicians “to get started”.

One of us (J. Jost) worked out a theory of strings with boundary as a quantization of Plateau's problem for minimal surfaces and lectured at several conferences on the geometric aspects of the theory. Two of us, S. Paycha and S. Scarlatti, have been working on relating these aspects with probabilistic ones, in connection with Ph.D. theses in Bochum/Paris and Rome respectively, under the direction of S. Albeverio [Pa1], [Sc]. The probabilistic aspects are connected with the study of a mass zero Høegh-Krohn model, and the first basic study of these aspects was undertaken by S. Albeverio, S. Paycha and S. Scarlatti in collaboration with the late R. Høegh-Krohn.

Type
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A Mathematical Introduction to String Theory
Variational Problems, Geometric and Probabilistic Methods
, pp. vii
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

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  • Preface
  • Sergio Albeverio, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany, Jurgen Jost, Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in den Naturwissenschaften, Leipzig, Sylvie Paycha, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, Sergio Scarlatti, Università degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata'
  • Book: A Mathematical Introduction to String Theory
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511600791.001
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  • Preface
  • Sergio Albeverio, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany, Jurgen Jost, Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in den Naturwissenschaften, Leipzig, Sylvie Paycha, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, Sergio Scarlatti, Università degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata'
  • Book: A Mathematical Introduction to String Theory
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511600791.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Sergio Albeverio, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany, Jurgen Jost, Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in den Naturwissenschaften, Leipzig, Sylvie Paycha, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, Sergio Scarlatti, Università degli Studi di Roma 'Tor Vergata'
  • Book: A Mathematical Introduction to String Theory
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511600791.001
Available formats
×