M-branes, noncommutative geometry and thermodynamics of charged rotating (A)dS spacetimes with a NUT twist

物理学中最有趣和最吸引人的问题之一是理解如何理解量子引力理论。我的长期研究包括从粒子物理、非对易几何和引力物理的角度考虑与量子引力有关的具体问题，从而加强和增加我们对粒子和引力物理的知识。根据我们目前的知识，量子引力理论的最佳候选理论是超弦理论，它似乎表现出良好的微扰行为。在超弦理论中，粒子物理学中的所有基本粒子和自然界中所有已知力都是最基本的物体--一维弦--的不同状态的实现。然而，众所周知，至少有五种不同的一致超弦理论。它们之间似乎简单地存在着某种对偶关系，尽管还没有已知的理论来解释为什么不同的超弦理论之间会有对偶关系。在这方面，很难确定哪个特定的弦理论描述了我们的现实世界。非微扰弦理论的最新发展--首先是超弦理论中各种扩展物体的发现(狄利克雷膜)--已经开始揭示这个重要的问题。很明显，这些扩展的物体在超弦的强动力学和膜理论(M理论)中扮演着非常重要的角色。从强耦合极限的角度来看，超弦理论不只是弦理论，而是包含许多作为轻自由度的扩展物体(膜)。这些物体的存在是不同超弦理论之间对偶关系的根源。M理论目前被称为M理论，它是由许多扩展的物体组成的十一维量子理论，这些物体围绕着它的微扰真空产生了所有的超弦理论。在这个背景下，我的研究计划将解决受弦理论启发的粒子物理、非对易几何和引力物理中的当前问题。

One of the most interesting and attractive problems in physics is that of understanding how to make sense of a quantum theory of gravity. My long-term research involves strengthening and increasing our knowledge of particle and gravitational physics by considering specific questions connected with quantum gravity from the viewpoints of particle physics, noncommutative geometry and gravitational physics. According to our present knowledge, the best possible candidate theory for a quantum theory of gravity is superstring theory, which seems to exhibit good perturbative behaviours. In superstring theory, all the fundamental particles in particle physics and all known forces in nature are realizations of different states of the most fundamental object that is a one-dimensional string. However it has been known for some time that there are at least five distinct consistent superstring theories. It seemed that they simply exist with some dual relations between them although there was no known theory that explained why different superstring theories could have dual relations between them. In this regard, it was very difficult to determine which particular string theory describes our real world. Recent developments in non-perturbative string theory -- starting with the discovery of various extended objects in superstring theories (Dirichlet branes) -- have begun to cast light on this important question. It has become clear that these extended objects play very important roles in the strong dynamics of superstrings and in Membrane theory (M-theory). Superstring theories, when viewed in the strong coupling limit, are not just theories of strings but instead contain many extended objects (branes) as light degrees of freedom. The existence of these objects turned out to be the origin of the dual relations between different superstring theories. M-theory as it is called at present, is an eleven dimensional quantum theory of the many extended objects which produce all the superstring theories around its perturbative vacua. In this context my research plan will address current issues in particle physics, noncommutative geometry and gravitational physics that are inspired by string theory.