In a distilled and pedagogical fashion, the contributions to this volume of the famous summer school in Les Houches cover the recent developments in supersymmetric string theory, the gauge theory/string theory correspondence and string duality. Further chapters deal with quantum gravity and D-brane geometry. Black hole mechanics and cosmology are treated too, as well as the AdS-CFT correspondence. The book is a comprehensive introduction to the recent developments in string/M-theory and quantum gravity. It addresses graduate students in physics and astrophysics.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
Supergravity.- Supersymmetric Gauge Theories.- An Introduction to Duality Symmetries in String Theory.- Les Houches Lectures on Large N Field Theories and Gravity.- D-branes on the Conifold and N = 1 Gauge/Gravity Dualities.- De Sitter Space.- String Compactification with N = 1 Supersymmetry.- Lectures on Open Strings, and Noncommutative Gauge Theories.- Condensates near the Argyres-Douglas Point in SU(2) Gauge Theory with Broken N = 2 Supersymmetry.- Quantum Field Theory with Extra Dimensions.- Special Holonomy Spaces and M-Theory.- Four Dimensional Non-Critical Strings.- U-Opportunities: Why is Ten Equal to Ten?.- Exact Answers to Approximate Questions Noncommutative dipoles, Open Wilson Lines and UV-IR Duality.- Open-String Models With Broken Supersymmetry.- On A Field Theory of Open Strings, Tachyon Condensation and Closed Strings.- Exceptional Magic.