8.821 F2008: Applied String TheoryApproximate Course OutlineMcGreevyNovember 26, 20081. what we know about string theory2. D3-branes at small and large gsN [MAGOO hep-th/9905111 §1.1]3. AdS/CFT from scratch, no strings [Horowitz-Polchinski, gr-qc/0602037]4. what holds up the throat? [Denef-Kachru-Polchinski, hep-th/0701050]5. how to defend yourself from a supersymmetric field theory [Ed’H-DZF hep-th/0201253 §2–4]6. about the N = 4 SYM theory [Ed’H-DZF hep-th/0201253 §3]7. big picture of correspondence [MAGOO hep-th/9905111 §3.1.2];strings and Strong Interactions [Maldacena, TASI 2003, hep-th/0309246, §2, §3.0]8. ’t Hooft counting [Coleman, ‘1N’, in Aspects of Symmetry or linked on course website mainpage; MAGOO hep-th/9905111 §1.2; Maldacena, TASI 2003, hep-th/0309246, §2]9. scale and conformal invariance in field theory [Ginsparg, hep-th/9108028 §1, MAGOO hep-th/9905111 §2.1, Callan, ”Introduction to Conformal Invariance” (linked on course websitemain page), perhaps Nishida-Son, 0706.3746 [cond-mat]]10. CFT in D > 2 cont’d. [same refs as previous lecture]11. geometry of AdS [e.g. MAGOO hep-th/9905111 §2.2, Kiritsis, Appendix K, hep-th/0309246,§3, Petersen, hep-th/9902131 §2]12. geometry of AdS cont’d.[Petersen, hep-th/9902131 §2]; wave equation in AdS [hep-th/0309246,§3]13. masses of fields and dimensions of operators [hep-th/0309246 §4; MAGOO 3.3]; BF-allowedtachyons.14. how to compute two-point correlators of scalar operators [hep-th/0309246 §4; MAGOO 3.3;primary sources: GKP, hep-th/9802109, Witten, hep-th/9802150 §2.4, 2.5]15. preview of real-time issues; two-point functions in momentum space, cont’d [same refs asprevious lecture]; more on low-mass2fields in AdS [Klebanov-Witten, hep-th/9905104]116. three-point functions, anomalies [MAGOO §3.2.2, §3.3.2; hep-th/0201253 §8.4, 8.5; primarysources: Freedman-Mathur-Matusis-Rastelli, hep-th/9804058; Witten, hep-th/9802150 §2.4,2.5]; expectation values [Klebanov-Witten, hep-th/9905104, p. 9]17. Wilson loops [Kiritsis §13.9, MAGOO §3.5]18. Wilson loops, cont’d [same refs, plus hep-th/9904191, hep-th/9809188.]19. pointlike probes of the bulk [MAGOO §3.5.2, Graham-Witten, hep-th/9901021, Fidkowskiet al, hep-th/0306170]; baryons and branes in AdS [MAGOO §4.2, hep-th/0003075]; ’non-spherical horizons’ [MAGOO §4.1]20. brief survey of other examples of the correspondence (M2, M5, D1-D5, Dp, branes at singu-larities) [MAGOO §4.1, §6.1, IMSY, hep-th/9802042];a model of confinement [MAGOO §6.2, hep-th/0306246 §6].21. confinement, cont’d: how to measure the spectrum, proof of mass gap [hep-th/9803131 §3.3,MAGOO §6.2, hep-th/0306246 §6];22. black hole mechanics, classical and quantum [Jacobson, §2, 3; Townsend, Black Holes, gr-qc/9707012, Chapter 6.]23. AdS black holes and thermal gauge theory: equation of state, free energy and stress tensor24. Hawking effect for interacting field theories and BH thermodynamics [Jacobson §3, Susskind-Lindesay ch. 3]25. AdS black holes and thermal gauge theory: Polyakov-Susskind loop, screening, quasinormalmodes [MAGOO §3.6]Hawking-Page transition [hep-th/9803131]2Literature: Unfortunately, there isn’t a textbook yet which follows the path in store for us. Booksand papers which we may find useful include:Juan Maldacena, “TASI lectures on AdS/CFT,” hep-th/0309246.MAGOO, “Large N Field Theories, String Theory and Gravity,” hep-th/9905111.Eric D’ Hoker and Dan Freedman, “Supersymmetric gauge theories and the AdS / CFT correspon-dence,” hep-th/0201253.Igor Klebanov, “TASI lectures: Introduction to the AdS/CFT correspondence,” hep-th/0009139.Lenny Susskind, James Lindesay, An Introduction to Black Holes, Information, and the StringTheory Revolution: The Holographic Universe, World Scientific, 2005.Daniela Bigatti, Lenny Susskind, “TASI Lectures on the Holographic Principle,” hep-th/0002044.Jacobson, ‘Introductory Lectures on Black Hole Thermodynamics,’http://www.glue.umd.edu/~tajac/BHTlectures/lectures.psJuan Maldacena, “Black holes in string theory” hep-th/9607235.Dam Son and Andrei Starinets, “Viscosity, Black Holes and Quantum Field Theory,” 0704.0240[hep-th].Pavel Kovtun, lectures on hydrodynamics, to appear, hopefully before the end of the semester.Elias Kiritsis, String Theory in a Nutshell, Princeton, 2007.Beckers, Schwarz, String Theory and M-Theory: A Modern Introduction,