Strings in plane wave backgrounds [Elektronische Ressource] / von Ari Pankiewicz

Strings in plane wave backgroundsD I S S E R T A T I O Nzur Erlangung des akademischen Gradesdoctor rerum naturalium(Dr. rer. nat.)im Fach Physikeingereicht an derMathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultat¨ IHumboldt-Universit¨at zu BerlinvonDipl.-Phys. Ari Pankiewiczgeboren am 02.11.1974 in HeidelbergPr¨asident der Humboldt-Universit¨at zu Berlin:Prof. Dr. Jurg¨ en MlynekDekan der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakult¨at I:Prof. Dr. Michael LinscheidGutachter:1. Prof. Dr. Stefan Theisen2. Prof. Dr. Albrecht Klemm3. Dr. habil. Jan Plefkaeingereicht am: 03. April 2003Tag der mundlic¨ hen Prufung:¨ 13. Juni 2003AbstractThe interplay between string and gauge theory has led to many newinsights in recent years. The most prominent example is the AdS/CFTcorrespondence, a duality between string theory on Anti-de Sitter (AdS)spaces and conformal gauge theories defined on their boundary. The studyof string theory on plane wave backgrounds, which are connected to AdS bythe Penrose limit, opens up the possibility of testing this duality beyond thelow-energy supergravity approximation. Generalized plane wave geometriesare interesting in themselves, as they provide a large class of exact classicalspace-time backgrounds for string theory.Inthisthesisaspectsofstringtheoryonplanewavebackgroundsarestud-ied, with an emphasis on the connection to gauge theory.