String Theory

We review basic aspects as well as recent developments in string theory. We discuss the correspondence between superstring theory on curved spaces and gauge theories in flat space-time, the computation of gluon scattering amplitudes using a topological string and the relation between four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and bosonic matrix models. We consider non-critical strings and the pure spinor covariant quantization of superstrings, and review the studies of black holes in string theory, including the entropy calculation, higher curvature corrections and black hole topology in space-time dimension higher than four. Finally, we outline direct and indirect possible experimental signatures of string theory. c Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.