The basic idea simple and revolutionary at the same time to replace the concept of a point
particle with a one-dimensional string has opened up a whole new field of research. Even today
four decades later its multifaceted consequences are still not fully conceivable. Up to now
string theory has offered a new way to view each particle: as different excitations of the same
fundamental object. It has celebrated success in discovering the graviton in its spectrum and
it has naturally led scientists to posit space-times with more than four dimensions-which in
turn has triggered numerous interesting developments in fields as varied as condensed matter
physics and pure mathematics. This book collects pedagogical lectures by leading experts in
string theory introducing the non-specialist reader to some of the newest developments in the
field. The carefully selected topics are at the cutting edge of research in string theory and
include new developments in topological strings or AdS CFT dualities as well as newly
emerging subfields such as doubled field theory and holography in the hydrodynamic regime. The
contributions to this book have been selected and arranged in such a way as to form a
self-contained graduate level textbook.
