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Quantum Gravity and Quantum Cosmology pp 3–30Cite as

String Theory, Unification and Quantum Gravity

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 863))

Abstract

An overview is given of the way in which the unification program of particle physics has evolved into the proposal of superstring theory as a prime candidate for unifying quantum gravity with the other forces and particles of nature. A key concern with quantum gravity has been the problem of ultraviolet divergences, which is naturally solved in string theory by replacing particles with spatially extended states as the fundamental excitations. String theory turns out, however, to contain many more extended-object states than just strings. Combining all this into an integrated picture, called M-theory, requires recognition of the rôle played by a web of nonperturbative duality symmetries suggested by the nonlinear structures of the field-theoretic supergravity limits of string theory.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The D=4, L=7 situation requires special care [25]. At the linearized level, it would seem that the ∂ 8 R 4 candidate could be the first full-superspace non-BPS counterterm in D=4. The volume of superspace, \(\int d^{4}x d^{32}\theta\det(E_{M}^{A})\) would seem to be the obvious candidate. However, rather surprisingly, it turns out that this superspace volume vanishes subject to the classical field equations, so there is no need for such a counterterm in the renormalized action. Instead, what looks like a non-BPS ∂ 8 R 4 counterterm at the linearized level turns into a \(\frac{1}{8}\)-BPS counterterm at the full nonlinear level. This illustrates the important rôle that nonlinear structure can play in quantum gravity divergence analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    K. S. Stelle

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  1. K. S. Stelle
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Correspondence to K. S. Stelle .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CSIC, Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Madrid, Spain

    Gianluca Calcagni

  2. Department of Physics, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, 15780, Greece

    Lefteris Papantonopoulos

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Nielsen Physics Building 210, Knoxville, 37996-1200, Tennessee, USA

    George Siopsis

  4. Crete Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Crete, Physics Bldg. 203, Heraklion, 71003, Greece

    Nikos Tsamis

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Stelle, K.S. (2013). String Theory, Unification and Quantum Gravity. In: Calcagni, G., Papantonopoulos, L., Siopsis, G., Tsamis, N. (eds) Quantum Gravity and Quantum Cosmology. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 863. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33036-0_1

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