Type I string theory

In theoretical physics, type I string theory is one of five consistent supersymmetric string theories in ten dimensions. It is the only one whose strings are unoriented (both orientations of a string are equivalent) and the only one which perturbatively contains not only closed strings, but also open strings.

Overview

The classic 1976 work of Ferdinando Gliozzi, Joël Scherk and David Olive^[1] paved the way to a systematic understanding of the rules behind string spectra in cases where only closed strings are present via modular invariance. It did not lead to similar progress for models with open strings, despite the fact that the original discussion was based on the type I string theory.

As first proposed by Augusto Sagnotti in 1988,^[2] the type I string theory can be obtained as an orientifold of type IIB string theory, with 32 half-D9-branes added in the vacuum to cancel various anomalies giving it a gauge group of SO(32) via Chan-Paton factors.

At low energies, type I string theory is described by the N=1 supergravity (type I supergravity) in ten dimensions coupled to the SO(32) supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory. The discovery in 1984 by Michael Green and John H. Schwarz that anomalies in type I string theory cancel sparked the first superstring revolution. However, a key property of these models, shown by A. Sagnotti in 1992, is that in general the Green–Schwarz mechanism takes a more general form, and involves several two forms in the cancellation mechanism.

The relation between the type-IIB string theory and the type-I string theory has a large number of surprising consequences, both in ten and in lower dimensions, that were first displayed by the String Theory Group at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in the early 1990s. It opened the way to the construction of entire new classes of string spectra with or without supersymmetry. Joseph Polchinski's work on D-branes provided a geometrical interpretation for these results in terms of extended objects (D-brane, orientifold).

In the 1990s it was first argued by Edward Witten that type I string theory with the string coupling constant $g$ is equivalent to the SO(32) heterotic string with the coupling $1/g$ . This equivalence is known as S-duality.

Notes

^ F. Gliozzi, J. Scherk and D. I. Olive, "Supersymmetry, Supergravity Theories and the Dual Spinor Model", Nucl. Phys. B 122 (1977), 253.
^ Sagnotti, A. (1988). "Open strings and their symmetry groups". In 't Hooft, G.; Jaffe, A.; Mack, G.; Mitter, P. K.; Stora, R. (eds.). Nonperturbative Quantum Field Theory. Plenum Publishing Corporation. pp. 521–528. arXiv:hep-th/0208020. Bibcode:2002hep.th....8020S.

References

E. Witten, "String theory dynamics in various dimensions", Nucl. Phys. B 443 (1995) 85. arXiv:hep-th/9503124.
J. Polchinski, S. Chaudhuri and C.V. Johnson, "Notes on D-Branes", arXiv:hep-th/9602052.
C. Angelantonj and A. Sagnotti, "Open strings", Phys. Rep. 1 [(Erratum-ibid.) 339] arXiv:hep-th/0204089.

This string theory-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] F. Gliozzi, J. Scherk and D. I. Olive, "Supersymmetry, Supergravity Theories and the Dual Spinor Model", Nucl. Phys. B 122 (1977), 253.

[2] Sagnotti, A. (1988). "Open strings and their symmetry groups". In 't Hooft, G.; Jaffe, A.; Mack, G.; Mitter, P. K.; Stora, R. (eds.). Nonperturbative Quantum Field Theory. Plenum Publishing Corporation. pp. 521–528. arXiv:hep-th/0208020. Bibcode:2002hep.th....8020S.

[1]

[2]

v t e String theory
Background	Strings Cosmic strings History of string theory First superstring revolution Second superstring revolution String theory landscape
Theory	Nambu–Goto action Polyakov action Bosonic string theory Superstring theory Type I string Type II string Type IIA string Type IIB string Heterotic string N=2 superstring F-theory String field theory Matrix string theory Non-critical string theory Non-linear sigma model Tachyon condensation RNS formalism GS formalism
String duality	T-duality S-duality U-duality Montonen–Olive duality
Particles and fields	Graviton Dilaton Tachyon Ramond–Ramond field Kalb–Ramond field Magnetic monopole Dual graviton Dual photon
Branes	D-brane NS5-brane M2-brane M5-brane S-brane Black brane Black holes Black string Brane cosmology Quiver diagram Hanany–Witten transition
Conformal field theory	Virasoro algebra Mirror symmetry Conformal anomaly Conformal algebra Superconformal algebra Vertex operator algebra Loop algebra Kac–Moody algebra Wess–Zumino–Witten model
Gauge theory	Anomalies Instantons Chern–Simons form Bogomol'nyi–Prasad–Sommerfield bound Exceptional Lie groups (G₂, F₄, E₆, E₇, E₈) ADE classification Dirac string p-form electrodynamics
Geometry	Worldsheet Kaluza–Klein theory Compactification Why 10 dimensions? Kähler manifold Ricci-flat manifold Calabi–Yau manifold Hyperkähler manifold K3 surface G₂ manifold Spin(7)-manifold Generalized complex manifold Orbifold Conifold Orientifold Moduli space Hořava–Witten theory K-theory (physics) Twisted K-theory
Supersymmetry	Supergravity Superspace Lie superalgebra Lie supergroup
Holography	Holographic principle AdS/CFT correspondence
M-theory	Matrix theory Introduction to M-theory
String theorists	Aganagić Arkani-Hamed Atiyah Banks Berenstein Bousso Curtright Dijkgraaf Distler Douglas Duff Dvali Ferrara Fischler Friedan Gates Gliozzi Gopakumar Green Greene Gross Gubser Gukov Guth Hanson Harvey 't Hooft Hořava Gibbons Kachru Kaku Kallosh Kaluza Kapustin Klebanov Knizhnik Kontsevich Klein Linde Maldacena Mandelstam Marolf Martinec Minwalla Moore Motl Mukhi Myers Nanopoulos Năstase Nekrasov Neveu Nielsen van Nieuwenhuizen Novikov Olive Ooguri Ovrut Polchinski Polyakov Rajaraman Ramond Randall Randjbar-Daemi Roček Rohm Sagnotti Scherk Schwarz Seiberg Sen Shenker Siegel Silverstein Sơn Staudacher Steinhardt Strominger Sundrum Susskind Townsend Trivedi Turok Vafa Veneziano Verlinde Verlinde Wess Witten Yau Yoneya Zamolodchikov Zamolodchikov Zaslow Zumino Zwiebach