1996/07/09 by Joseph Polchinski · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #cond-mat #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.68.1245
published as Rev.Mod.Phys.68:1245-1258,1996 · Minor typos corrected. 41 pages, 7 epsf figures, LaTeX
arxiv created 1996/07/09 · openalex publication_date 1996/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The strong-coupling limit of a quantum system is in general quite complicated, but in some cases a great simplification occurs: the strongly coupled limit is equivalent to the weakly coupled limit of some other system. In string theory conjectures of this type go back several years, but only in the past year and a half has it been understood to be a general principle applying to all string theories. This has improved our understanding of string dynamics, including quantum gravity, in many new and sometimes surprising ways. The author describes these developments and puts them in the context of the search for the unified theory of particle physics and gravity. [S0034-6861(96)00604-6]