This book presents a mathematical treatment of Bosonic string theory from the point of view of global geometry. As motivation, Jost presents the theory of point particles and Feynman path integrals. He provides detailed background material, including the geometry of Teichmüller space, the conformal and complex geometry of Riemann surfaces, and the subtleties of boundary regularity questions. The high point is the description of the partition function for Bosonic strings as a finite-dimensional integral over a moduli space of Riemann surfaces. Jost concludes with some topics related to open and closed strings and $D$-branes.

Bosonic Strings is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in the mathematics underlying string theory.

Readership

Graduate students and research mathematicians interested in Riemannian geometry and global analysis; theoretical physicists interested in quantum field theory.