Download or read book String Theory: Volume 2, Superstring Theory and Beyond written by Joseph Polchinski and published by . This book was released on 2005-06-02 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 2: Superstring Theory and Beyond, begins with an introduction to supersymmetric string theories and goes on to a broad presentation of the important advances of recent years. The book first introduces the type I, type II, and heterotic superstring theories and their interactions. It then goes on to present important recent discoveries about strongly coupled strings, beginning with a detailed treatment of D-branes and their dynamics, and covering string duality, M-theory, and black hole entropy, and discusses many classic results in conformal field theory. The final four chapters are concerned with four-dimensional string theories, and have two goals: to show how some of the simplest string models connect with previous ideas for unifying the Standard Model; and to collect many important and beautiful general results on world-sheet and spacetime symmetries.