String Theory: Gauge/Gravity Duality
A one-semester MIT graduate physics course on gauge/gravity duality, better known as AdS/CFT correspondence, taught as part of MIT OpenCourseWare. The course builds from the basics of string theory and conformal field theory toward the holographic dictionary that relates a gravitational theory in anti-de Sitter space to a conformal field theory on its boundary. Materials include lecture notes covering topics such as black hole thermodynamics, the Maldacena conjecture, correlation functions, and applications to strongly coupled systems, along with problem sets that work through the technical machinery. The course assumes prior graduate coursework in quantum field theory and general relativity, and it is aimed at students already comfortable with string theory fundamentals. As with other MIT OpenCourseWare offerings, all materials are free to use under a Creative Commons license, with no certificate or instructor interaction attached. It suits self-study for advanced physics students wanting a structured path through one of theoretical physics's most active research programs.