This article is cited in 20 papers

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS

String theory or field theory?

A. V. Marshakov

P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Abstract: The status of string theory is reviewed, and major recent developments—especially those in going beyond perturbation theory in the string theory and quantum field theory frameworks — are analyzed. This analysis helps better understand the role and place of string theory in the modern picture of the physical world. Even though quantum field theory describes a wide range of experimental phenomena, it is emphasized that there are some insurmountable problems inherent in it—notably the impossibility to formulate the quantum theory of gravity on its basis — which prevent it from being a fundamental physical theory of the world of microscopic distances. It is this task, the creation of such a theory, which string theory, currently far from completion, is expected to solve. In spite of its somewhat vague current form, string theory has already led to a number of serious results and greatly contributed to progress in the understanding of quantum field theory. It is these developments which are our concern in this review.

PACS: 11.15.-q, 11.25.-w, 12.20.-m

Received: November 21, 2001

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0172.200209a.0977

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 2002, 45:9, 915–954

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