Gravity and Strings

Description

Self-contained and comprehensive, this definitive new edition of Gravity and Strings is a unique resource for graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics. From basic differential geometry through to the construction and study of black-hole and black-brane solutions in quantum gravity - via all the intermediate stages - this book provides a complete overview of the intersection of gravity, supergravity, and superstrings. Now fully revised, this second edition covers an extensive array of topics, including new material on non-linear electric-magnetic duality, the electric-tensor formalism, matter-coupled supergravity, supersymmetric solutions, the geometries of scalar manifolds appearing in 4- and 5-dimensional supergravities, and much more. Covering reviews of important solutions and numerous solution-generating techniques, and accompanied by an exhaustive index and bibliography, this is an exceptional reference work Content: Differential geometry -- Symmetries and Noether's theorems -- A perturbative introduction to general relativity -- Action principles for gravity -- Pure N=1,2,d=4 supergravities -- Matter-coupled N=1,d=4 supergravity -- Matter-coupled N=2,d=4 supergravity -- A generic description of all the N=2,d=4 SUEGRAS -- Matter-coupled N=1,d=5 supergravity -- Conserved charges in general relativity -- The Schwarzschild black hole -- The Reissner-Nordstrom black hole -- The Taub-NUT solution -- Gravitational pp-waves -- The Kaluza-Klein black hole -- Dilaton and dilaton/axion black holes -- Unbroken supersymmetry I: supersymmetric vacua -- Unbroken supersymmetry II: partially supersymmetric solutions -- Supersymmetric black holes from supergravity -- String theory -- The string effective action and T duality -- From eleven to four dimensions -- The type-IIB superstring and type-II T duality -- Extended objects -- The extended objects of string theory -- String black holes in four and five dimensions -- The FGK formalism for (single, static) black holes and branes.