Wednesday 1 Dec. 2010

Speaker:   Nick Evans (Southampton)

Title:   "An Introduction to String/M-Theory".

Abstract:

I, someone who has entered string theory with a phenomenologists background, 
will attempt to give a gentle first introdution to what string theory or 
M theory actually is. Why does it unify gravity and gauge theory? Why are 
there 5 types of string theory and why do they live in 10 dimensions? 
Are they string theories anyway since they contain higher dimension branes? 
How do dualities and 11 dimensional M-theory unify them? How do we even 
define what theses theories are? Are there really 10^500 vacuum states? 
Does any of this have anything to do with the real world? We can end 
with a good argument about the anthropic principle.