nLab Leonard Susskind

Selected writings

Suggestion to understand the Veneziano amplitude in quantum hadrodynamics as the scattering amplitude of chains of particles with harmonic nearest-neighbour interaction, in the continuum limit described by the Polyakov action, this becoming one of the arguments initiating string theory (alongside Polyakov gauge-string duality):

Early suggestion that confined QCD is described by regarding the color-flux tubes as string-like dynamical degrees of freedoms (cf. gauge/string duality):

  • John Kogut, Leonard Susskind, Vacuum polarization and the absence of free quarks in four dimensions, Phys. Rev. D 9 (1974) 3501-3512 [doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.9.3501]

  • John Kogut, Leonard Susskind, Hamiltonian formulation of Wilson’s lattice gauge theories, Phys. Rev. D 11 (1975) 395 [doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.11.395]

    “The gauge-invariant configuration space consists of a collection of strings with quarks at their ends. The strings are lines of non-Abelian electric flux. In the strong coupling limit the dynamics is best described in terms of these strings. Quark confinement is a result of the inability to break a string without producing a pair. […]”

    “The confining mechanism is the appearance of one dimensional electric flux tubes which must link separated quarks. The appropriate description of the strongly coupled limit consists of a theory of interacting, propagating strings. […]”

    “This picture of the strongly coupled Yang-Mills theory in terms of a collection of stringlike flux lines is the central result of our analysis. It should be compared with the phenomenological use of stringlike degrees of freedom which has been widely used in describing hadrons.”

Introducing the holographic principle:

Introducing the BFSS matrix model (M-theory as D0-brane quantum mechanics in non-perturbative type IIA string theory):

In view of flat space holography:

On black holes in string theory via the BFSS matrix model:

Introducing the notion of giant gravitons:

Discussion of the fractional quantum Hall effect via a noncommutative (matrix model-)Chern-Simons theory:

On geometric engineering of aspects of the quantum Hall effect on M5-brane worldvolumes via an effective noncommutative geometry induced by a constant B-field flux density:

Introductory lectures on string theory:

Proposing ER = EPR:

On the role of chords in the holography for the SYK model:

Interviews

  • Y Combinator: Leonard Susskind on Richard Feynman, the Holographic Principle, and Unanswered Questions in Physics (Dec 2018) [YT]

  • Kristiane Bernhard-Novotny: Lost in the landscape, interview with Susskind for CernCourier (3 Mar 2023)

category: people

Last revised on August 21, 2024 at 18:48:56. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.