Superstrlngs in Four Dimensions

Author

Robert Theodore Bluhm Jr.

Date of Award

1988

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Abstract

All of the work presented in this thesis ^[1-3] evolved from the initial idea that strings, if they are to make sense, ought to exist in four spacetime dimensions. At the time that it was formulated, back in mid-1985, such an idea was thought to be impossible. There were only five string theories thatwere known to be fully consistent, ^[4-9] and each of these had a critical dimension of 10. The bosonic (or Veneziano) string has to live in 26 spacetime dimensions, or else a breakdown of Lorentz invariance occurs. But it is not a fully consistent theory because it contains a tachyon (a particle with negative mass squared) in its spectrum ^[38—40] and its amplitudes have infinities.

Comments

A thesis submitted to the faculty of The Rockefeller University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Recommended Citation

Bluhm, Robert Theodore Jr., "Superstrlngs in Four Dimensions" (1988). Student Theses and Dissertations. 486.
https://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/student_theses_and_dissertations/486