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I have almost finished reading the basics of Bosonic String Theory from Becker, Becker and Schwartz as well as Tong's notes.

What is the best book to start reading about Superstring theory (something which is slightly easier than Polchinski). I am confused among these options:

  1. String Theory in a nutshell by E. Kiritsis
  2. String Theory and M theory by Becker, Becker and Schwartz.
  3. Green, Schwartz and Witten volume 1
  4. Superstring Theory by E. Kiritsis
  5. Something else
Qmechanic
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Tushar Gopalka
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  • Possible duplicates: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/29007/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Nov 16 '20 at 15:50
  • That question doesn't answer it properly. Please don't close the question. – Tushar Gopalka Nov 16 '20 at 16:04
  • the best book to start reading The problem here is that you don't give any criteria for judging "best". Likewise "easier", as again that's a personal thing. People will have different personal experiences and views on which is best. My idea of what makes something best will be different from yours in all likelihood. So more info on how you define "best" please. Also please explain why the linked question does not answer your own. – StephenG - Help Ukraine Nov 16 '20 at 17:23
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    @StephenG let's not make this a discussion of the meaning of words. Also, my question is different because I am not looking for an introduction to string theory, since I am familiar with bosonic string theory. I am looking for something which describes superstring theory in a way that we don't get lost in computations. – Tushar Gopalka Nov 16 '20 at 17:42

2 Answers2

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String theory is an enormous subject. Even the very notion of "what is the minimum" desirable knowledge is diffuse and strongly depends on what exactly motivates you to learn string theory.

However, general suggestions can be made:

  1. It's a really good idea to have the excellent Blumenhagen-Lüst-Theisen textbook "Basic concepts in string theory" in mind. All the details of many important constructions and computations are worked in an incredibly explicit way.

  2. The Ibáñez-Uranga textbook String Theory and Particle Physics: An Introduction to String Phenomenology also offers concise and very readable introductions to the subject.

  3. As a personal suggestion: If you are really interested in string theory. At some moment you should take the wonderful adventure of reading Polchinski or Kiritsis. I urge you to take the extraordinary "Introduction to Conformal Field Theory: With Applications to String Theory" Blumenhagen-Plauschinn book to gain the necessary solid knowledge to perform worldsheet computations.

I hope you enjoy your adventure towards string theory.

Ramiro Hum-Sah
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    Thanks for the answer. I have read some chapters from the Blumenhagen book and found it extremely useful for understanding worldsheet CFT in bosonic string theory. My question was particularly regarding superstring theory. – Tushar Gopalka Nov 16 '20 at 17:40
  • @TusharGopalka You're very welcome. I understood that your question was about superstring theory. There is something critical I should say: I feel that the most challenging part of studying the superstring is that some constructions follow a different order that in ordinary quantum field theory. That situation may bother you at the beginning because some constructions could look very artificial or impossible to understand in a systematic way. For example: In QFT one begins with an action, then one try to quantize the theory, after that one compute quantum or loop corrections – Ramiro Hum-Sah Nov 16 '20 at 18:28
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    @TusharGopalka The situation with string theory is different. String theorist impose conditions derived from one-loop calculations (like the GSO projection) to discover the possible consistent spectrum of the superstring. Another example are SUSY algebras and chiral rings, the first time you see them you may say: Where that particular combination of symbols were found in first place? or questions of that sort. To me, the best way to get mastery in surpass all those technical difficulties that apparently plagate the superstring ... is a deep undestanding of the means of the CFT formalism. – Ramiro Hum-Sah Nov 16 '20 at 18:34
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    @TusharGopalka You would be able to derive all those consistency conditions that appear in the supersymmetric theory and to understand the logic if your CFT knowledge is strong enough. The best of all lucks in your study of string theory, enjoy it and taste how powerful and different is than QFT. – Ramiro Hum-Sah Nov 16 '20 at 18:38
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As Ramiro Hum-Sah already mentioned, string theory is a very broad topic and really the notion of minimality has to do with personal taste.

I enjoyed self-studying and solving the string theory book by Becker-Becker-Schwarz. The title is String theory and M-theory. Some people have the argument that the authors pass really quickly the basic and introductory parts to move on to recent developments. While I see their point, I still think it is a nice exposition.

The reason that I like this book so much is simple. It kind of forces the reader to take pen and paper and go through all the small details. Plus it has some of the cool developments. Combine that with the solved and the homework problems and this is really my top choice.

As a supplement to the said resource, I used the oldie but goldie Superstring Theory book by Green, Schwarz, Witten. Mainly when I wanted more intuition and a more physical explanation, or when I felt that I wanted some more to the contents of my basic book.

To be honest, I consulted some more sources, but these were the main two.

The above are of course personal choices and preferences.

Urb
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    Thanks. I am also using BBS as my main source, and GSW as a reference for details. I am also following Shiraz's lecture videos at TIFR which are really detailed and quite well explained. – Tushar Gopalka Nov 16 '20 at 17:44