Introduction to String Theory and Gauge/Gravity duality for students in QCD and QGP phenomenology

Abstract

String theory has been initially derived from motivations coming from strong interaction phenomenology,but its application faced deep conceptual and practical difficulties. The strong interactions found their theoretical foundation elsewhere, namely on QCD, the quantum gauge field theory of quarks and gluons. Recently, the Gauge/Gravity correspondence allowed to initiate a reformulation of the connection between strings and gauge field theories, avoiding some of the initial drawbacks and opening the way to new insights on the gauge theory at strong coupling and eventually QCD. Among others, the recent applications of the Gauge/Gravity correspondence to the formation of the QGP, the quark-gluon plasma, in heavy-ion reactions seem to provide a physically interesting insight on phenomenological features of the reactions. In these lectures we will give a simplified introduction to those aspects of string theory which, at the origin and in the recent developments, are connected to strong interactions, for those students which are starting to learn QCD and QGP physics from an experimental or phenomenological point of view.