1998/03/31 by John H. Schwarz, Nathan Seiberg · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.71.s112
published as Rev.Mod.Phys.71:S112-S120,1999 · 21 pages, 5 figures. To appear in the American Physical Society Centenary issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, March 1999
arxiv created 1998/04/22 · openalex publication_date 1999/03/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
String theory and supersymmetry are theoretical ideas that go beyond the standard model of particle physics and show promise for unifying all forces. After a brief introduction to supersymmetry, the authors discuss the prospects for its experimental discovery in the near future. They then show how the magic of supersymmetry allows us to solve certain quantum field theories exactly, thus leading to new insights about field theory dynamics related to electric-magnetic duality. The discussion of superstring theory starts with its perturbation expansion, which exhibits new features including ``stringy geometry.'' The authors then turn to more recent nonperturbative developments. Using new dualities, all known superstring theories are unified, and their strong-coupling behavior is clarified. A central ingredient is the existence of extended objects called branes.