Gravity and Strings

Self-contained and comprehensive, this definitive new edition of Gravity and Strings is a unique resource for graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics. From basic differential geometry through to the construction and study of black-hole and black-brane solutions in quantum gravity - via all the intermediate stages - this book provides a complete overview of the intersection of gravity, supergravity, and superstrings. Now fully revised, this second edition covers an extensive array of topics, including new material on non-linear electric-magnetic duality, the electric-tensor formalism, matter-coupled supergravity, supersymmetric solutions, the geometries of scalar manifolds appearing in 4- and 5-dimensional supergravities, and much more. Covering reviews of important solutions and numerous solution-generating techniques, and accompanied by an exhaustive index and bibliography, this is an exceptional reference work.1. Differential geometry; 2. Symmetries and Noether's theorems; 3. A perturbative introduction to general relativity; 4. Action principles for gravity; 5. Pure N=1,2,d=4 supergravities; 6. Matter-coupled N=1,d=4 supergravity; 7. Matter-coupled N=2,d=4 supergravity; 8. A generic description of all the N>2,d=4 SUEGRAS; 9. Matter-coupled N=1,d=5 supergravity; 10. Conserved charges in general relativity; 11. The Schwarzschild black hole; 12. The Reissner-Nordstrom black hole; 13. The Taub-NUT solution; 14. Gravitational pp-waves; 15. The Kaluza-Klein black hole; 16. Dilaton and dilaton/axion black holes; 17. Unbroken supersymmetry I: supersymmetric vacua; 18. Unbroken supersymmetry II: partially supersymmetric solutions; 19. Supersymmetric black holes from supergravity; 20. String theory; 21. The string effective action and T duality; 22. From eleven to four dimensions; 23. The type-IIB superstring and type-II T duality; 24. Extended objects; 25. The extended objects of string theory; 26. String black holes in four and five dimensions; 27. The FGK formalism for (single, static) black holes and branes; Appendices: A.1 Lie groups, symmetric spaces, and Yang-Mills fields; A.2 The irreducible, non-symmetric Riemannian spaces of special holonomy; A.3 Miscellanea on the symplectic group; A.4 Gamma matrices and spinors; A.5 Kahler geometry; A.6 Special Kahler geometry; A.7 Quaternionic-Kahler geometry.