The World in Eleven Dimensions

Abstract

The first superstring revolution, in 1984, was responsible for eliminating 11-dimensional supergravity from the list of candidates for the ultimate theory of nature. The return of 11-dimensional supergravity, in 1995, in a new guise called M-theory in the second superstring revolution is more dramatic than its exit 11 years ago. This is because the duality relationship between all the known string theories is incomplete without M-theory. Though this new avatar of 11-dimensional supergravity entered as a missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle of string dualities, it quickly established its special status by demonstrating that most of the string theories including the chiral ones can be derived from it in some specific limit. Whatever understanding we have of M-theory, so far, is challenging enough to make it one of most exciting subjects for `string theorists', with new results appearing on the net almost everyday. Publication of `The World in Eleven Dimensions', a reprint volume on 11-dimensional supergravity, supermembranes and M-theory is, therefore, very relevant and timely.