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I am a third year student in physics and mathematics and taking a course in which each student need to prepare and give one lecture about some topic related to physics. As I saw String Theory in the topics list I thought it could be a good opportunity to start learn it. I have background in quantum mechanics, statistical physics, analytical mechanics, group theory, and I read the book "quantum field theory for the gifted amateur" until chapter 12.

  1. What topics should I learn before string theory?

  2. I would appreciate any recommendations for books or other material about string theory.

ziv
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    Without a high level of comfort in quantum field theory you probably won't be able to get very far. Having said that, good intro level sources are David Tong's notes on string theory as well as Joe Polchinksi's 90 page notes "Joe's little book of strings." To some extent, though, all intro string theory material is very very similar, with a very large amount of overlap. Whichever one you personally find the easiest to read is the best. – user1379857 Mar 13 '21 at 22:45
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    Just a comment, if you're giving a single lecture on a topic in physics you're probably not expected to have a comprehensive understanding of string theory. I'd instead focus on key results, concepts, etc. There are plenty of good textbooks but any good review paper will probably serve better. – Eletie Mar 13 '21 at 22:46
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    This reminds me of this comic. – jacob1729 Mar 13 '21 at 22:46
  • user1379857, Thanks! – ziv Mar 13 '21 at 22:49
  • Jacob, actually, if you remove all the trivial staff that every physics and math student need to know, you end up with quit small list... – ziv Mar 13 '21 at 22:51
  • @ziv you didn't mention QFT, GR or SR, which are really the fundamental prerequisites. Along with relevant maths (Lie groups & algebras, diff geom, etc), I wouldn't call this a small list. But if you can master all these topics and teach yourself string theory alongside your other courses in 3rd year, you're way ahead of everybody else. – Eletie Mar 13 '21 at 23:10
  • @Eletie I forgot to mention that I do have backround in SP and diff geom. And as I said I studied some QFT from the book "quantum field theory for the gifted amateur". As for the other topics, I am willing to try learn them alongside the other courses. – ziv Mar 13 '21 at 23:16
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    @ziv Barton Zwiebach has an excellent textbook about string theory targeted at undergrads that I think you would be prepared for based on your experience. But as others said I wouldn't try to cover everything, just some key results. Deriving light cone quantization for the bosonic string would be a good target, this is done in chapter 2 of Tong's notes (but don't skip Chapters 0 and 1!) – Andrew Mar 14 '21 at 00:15
  • @Andrew Thanks! – ziv Mar 14 '21 at 00:55
  • Path integrals, conformal field theory – Mitchell Porter Mar 14 '21 at 05:46
  • @MitchellPorter Is path integrals in the context of string theory is new principle? Or do you just mean that "normal" path integrals are required in string theory? – ziv Mar 14 '21 at 08:08
  • The main motive was to ensure that you know about the path integral approach to quantum mechanics, since it is hard to do or understand string theory without it. The actual path integrals are also technically distinctive, in that the string histories get rescaled to fit on punctured Riemann surfaces – Mitchell Porter Mar 14 '21 at 09:24

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It's really wonderful to read a young physicist interested in string theory.

For the matter of the lecture I recommend to follow Witten's essay What Every Physicist Should Know About String Theory.

The following videos are about the enormous impact that string theory has produced for theoretical physics as a whole:

-What Every Physicist Should Know About String Theory

-Fundamental Lessons from String Theory with Cumrun Vafa

For a brief summary on string theory textbooks read the following blog post entry:

However I absolutely sure that you should start with the introductory textbook A first course in string theory by Barton Zwiebach.

Ramiro Hum-Sah
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