Three approaches to M-Theory

TL;DRAbstract

Since the early days of its discovery, when the term was used to characterise the quantum completion of eleven-dimensional supergravity and to determine the strong-coupling limit of type IIA superstring theory, the idea of M-theory has developed with time into a unifying framework for all known superstring theories. This evolution in conception has followed the progressive discovery of a large web of dualities relating seemingly dissimilar string theories, such as theories of closed and oriented strings (type II theories), of closed and open unoriented strings (type I theory), and theories with built in gauge groups (heterotic theories). In particular the eleven-dimensional Lorentz invariance of M-theory has been further highlighted by the discovery of how it descends by an orbifold compactification to the weakly-coupled heterotic E8×E8 string theory. Furthermore the derivation from M-theory of one-loop corrections to type II and heterotic low-energy effective supergravity has shed new

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