Objective String Theory is a framework for the fundamental interactions that replaces the elementary particles with extended objects, thus providing a successful perturbative description of the gravitational interaction that is free of the usual ultraviolet divergences of field theories and includes a finite number of mass less fields of spin less than or equal to 2. This setting, however, is incomplete, and the inclusion of non-perturbative effects requires additional extended objects (branes) of different dimensions. Some of the participants pioneered a number of aspects related to strings and to these extended objects. Duality relations (together with super-symmetry) simplify this complicated picture to some extent, linking the different ten-dimensional super string theories to one another and to an elusive 11-dimensional theory provisionally called M-theory, whose low-energy dynamics is governed by the super gravity model of Cremmer, Julia and Scherk. Some of the participants are directly responsible for the beautiful picture of string dualities in ten and eleven dimensions. This proposal aims at achieving a better understanding of String/M-theory dynamics, and in particular at elucidating the dynamics of higher-spin gauge fields. Some of our main research tasks are related to the extension of the known results for totally symmetric higher-spin gauge fields to the case of mixed symmetry and to the investigation of a number of other related topics, ranging from generalizations of the AdS/CFT correspondence, to PP-wave background geometries with nonzero fluxes of Ramond-Ramond fields and non-commutative Yang-Mills theories. The dynamics of open-string vacua with and without super symmetry, the investigation of their stability and of the corresponding quantum corrections and the dynamics of massive string modes will also be thoroughly investigated, by both space-time and world-sheet techniques. All the initial tasks we have listed are very likely to be achieved within the proposed periods, and will provide a sound basis to move toward the following ones. The other subtasks, and the very lines of the corresponding research, are likely to require the development of new techniques, and in some cases are less likely to be brought to full completion. The corresponding developments can only be partly foreseen at this stage, but are likely to allow also interesting applications to a number of related problems in Quantum Field Theory. Keywords AdS/CFT correspondence higher spin gauge theories superstrings Programme(s) IC-INTAS - International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the independent states of the former Soviet Union (INTAS), 1993- Topic(s) OPEN - OPEN Call Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator Universita' di Roma "Tor Vergata" EU contribution No data Address Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1 00133 Roma Italy See on map Total cost No data Participants (14) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CNRS/Ecole Politechnique France EU contribution No data Address Route de Saclay 1 91128 Palaiseau See on map Total cost No data Chalmers University of Technology Sweden EU contribution No data Address S- 412 96 Goteborg See on map Total cost No data Imperial College United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Prince Consort Road 1 SW7 2BZ London See on map Total cost No data Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics Russia EU contribution No data Address Bol'shaya Cheremushkinskaya 25 117259 Moscow See on map Total cost No data Lebedev Physical Institute Russia EU contribution No data Address Leninsky prospect 53 119991 Moscow See on map Total cost No data Max-Planck-Institut fur Gravitationsphysik Germany EU contribution No data Address Am Muhlenberg 5 14476 Golm See on map Total cost No data Physics Humboldt-University Germany EU contribution No data Address Newtonstrasse 15 12489 Berlin See on map Total cost No data Steklov Mathematical Institute Russia EU contribution No data Address Gubkina st. 8 117966 Moscow See on map Total cost No data Tomsk State Pedagogical University Russia EU contribution No data Address Komsomolsky Prospect 75 634041 Tomsk See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS Greece EU contribution No data Address PATRAS See on map Total cost No data UPPSALA UNIVERSITY Sweden EU contribution No data Address UPPSALA See on map Total cost No data University of Crete Greece EU contribution No data Address 71003 Heraklion See on map Total cost No data Utrecht University Netherlands EU contribution No data Address Princetonplein 5 3508 TA Utrecht See on map Total cost No data Yerevan Physics Institute Armenia EU contribution No data Address Br.Alikhanian St. 2 375036 Yerevan See on map Total cost No data
