Kiritsis E. String theory in a nutshell (rev.ed PUP 2007)(608s).pdf

Book review
String Theory in a Nutshell useful both in teaching courses on string theory and
Elias Kiritsis for those who are studying by themselves. A nice
2007 Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press feature of this book is that references are made
608 pp, UK £, US $ to specific pages earlier in the book, rather than
ISBN: 978-0-691-12230-4 to chapters, which is helpful for students working
through the book on their own.
The book ‘String Theory in a Nutshell’ by Elias In summary,‘String Theory in a Nutshell’ is
Kiritsis provides prehensive introduction to a valuable addition to the existing string theory
modern string theory. String theory is the leading textbooks; it plementary to the previous
candidate for a theory that essfully unifies all books and gives a good treatment of subsequent
fundamental forces of nature, including gravity. developments. It is likely to e a staple
The subject has been continuously developing reference on the subject, used both by students and
since the early 1970s, with classic textbooks on researchers.
the subject being those of Green, Schwarz and
Witten (1987) and Polchinski (1998). Since the
latter was published there have been substantial Kostas Skenderis
developments, in particular in understanding black Institute of Theoretical Physics, Universiteit van
holes and gravity/gauge theory dualities. A Amsterdam, Valckenierstraat 65, NL-1018 XE
textbook treatment of this important material is Amsterdam, herlands
clearly needed, both by students and researchers in
string theory and by mathematicians and physicists
working in related fields.
This book has a good selection of material,
starting from basics and moving into classic and
modern topics. In particular, Kiritsis’ presentation
of the basic material plementary to that of the
earlier textbooks and he includes a number of topics
which are not easily found or covered adequately
elsewhere, for example, loop corrections to string
effective coup