Lectures on D-branes, Gauge Theory and M(atrices)

Abstract

These notes give a pedagogical introduction to D-branes and Matrix theory. The development of the material is based on super Yang-Mills theory, which is the low-energy field theory describing multiple D-branes. The main goal of these notes is to describe physical properties of D-branes in the language of Yang-Mills theory, without recourse to string theory methods. This approach is motivated by the philosophy of Matrix theory, which asserts that all the physics of light-front M-theory can be described by an appropriate super Yang-Mills theory.

80 pages LaTeX, 8 figures; lectures presented at Trieste summer school on particle physics and cosmology, June 1997. v2: references added, typo corrected