<p>For the first time in the history of physics we stand in front of a theory that might actually serve as a unification of it all - string theory. It provides a self-consistent framework for gravity and quantum mechanics, which naturally incorporates matter and gauge interactions of the type seen in the standard model. Unfortunately, at the moment we do not know of any principle that selects the vacuum of the theory, so predictions about our four-dimensional world are still absent. However, the introduction of extended objects opens up an intricate new arena of physics, which is non-trivial and challenging to map out, even at a basic level.</p><p>A key concept of quantum gravity is holography; this is realised in string theory by the AdS/CFT correspondence, which relates string theory to a field theory living in a lower dimensional space. In this thesis we discuss two limits of the correspondence, namely the BMN limit, giving rise to a plane wave geometry, and the tensionless limit, exhibiting massless higher spin interactions. We also study a limit of string theory in a background electric field, where the theory is described by open strings and positively wound closed strings only.</p><p>We begin with a brief review of the theory, focusing on an intuitive understanding of the basic aspects and serving as an introduction to the papers. In the first paper we calculate, from two different points of view, scattering amplitudes in the non-commutative open string limit. In the second paper we obtain the quadratic scalar field contributions to the stress-energy tensor in the minimal bosonic higher spin gauge theory in four dimensions. In the last paper we propose a way to avoid fermion doubling when discretizing the string in the BMN limit.</p>

For the first time in the history of physics we stand in front of a theory that might actually serve as a unification of it all - string theory. It provides a self-consistent framework for gravity and quantum mechanics, which naturally incorporates matter and gauge interactions of the type seen in the standard model. Unfortunately, at the moment we do not know of any principle that selects the vacuum of the theory, so predictions about our four-dimensional world are still absent. However, the introduction of extended objects opens up an intricate new arena of physics, which is non-trivial and challenging to map out, even at a basic level. A key concept of quantum gravity is holography; this is realised in string theory by the AdS/CFT correspondence, which relates string theory to a field theory living in a lower dimensional space. In this thesis we discuss two limits of the correspondence, namely the BMN limit, giving rise to a plane wave geometry, and the tensionless limit, exhibiting massless higher spin interactions. We also study a limit of string theory in a background electric field, where the theory is described by open strings and positively wound closed strings only. We begin with a brief review of the theory, focusing on an intuitive understanding of the basic aspects and serving as an introduction to the papers. In the first paper we calculate, from two different points of view, scattering amplitudes in the non-commutative open string limit. In the second paper we obtain the quadratic scalar field contributions to the stress-energy tensor in the minimal bosonic higher spin gauge theory in four dimensions. In the last paper we propose a way to avoid fermion doubling when discretizing the string in the BMN limit.

CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Sistemas descritos por Hamiltonianos do tipo Dirac são ubíquos. Surgindo em materiais como grafeno, isolantes topológicos ou recentemente nos semimetais de Weyl. Devido ao interesse tecnológico e acadêmico desses materiais, caracterizar suas propriedades é essencial. Uma abordagem matemática para efetuar o estudo de tais sistemas consiste em discretizar o Hamiltoniano no espaço das posições, mas tal abordagem esbarra no problema da duplicação de férmions. De forma breve, esse problema atesta pela impossibilidade de simulação de férmions livres não massivos em uma rede discreta sem que alguma simetria ou propriedade da Hamiltoniana seja quebrada. No presente trabalho demonstramos que tal problemática não deveria ser causa de preocupação para o estudo de sistemas na matéria condensada, pois podemos utilizar a simetria quebrada para confinar os portadores de carga no sistema para remover os estados duplicados. Tal remoção é conseguida com a inserção de um termo quadrático em relação ao momento, conhecido como massa de Wilson. Nesse sentido podemos inserir um termo de Wilson com quebra de simetria necessária para o confinamento, tornando o problema de duplicação de férmions irrelevante, essa relação não tinha sido notada até o presente trabalho, e recentes resultados na literatura erroneamente atribuem a massa de Wilson com a quebra de uma simetria de reversão temporal, o que não necessariamente é verdade. Nesse contexto além de abordar essa relação a presente dissertação objetiva também elucidar alguns mal entendimentos a respeitos das massas de Wilson, quiralidade e outras simetrias. Para validar nosso argumento central estudamos diversos sistemas de interesse e comparamos com os resultados na literatura. / Hamiltonians of Dirac type are ubiquitous. Appearing in materials such as graphene, topological insulators or recently in the Weyl semimetals. Due to the technological and academic interest of these materials, characterizing their properties is essential. A mathematical approach to study these systems consists of discretizing the Hamiltonian in the space of positions, but such an approach causes the problem of doubling fermions (FDP). We demonstrate the FDP should not be a cause of concern for the study of confined systems because we can use the broken symmetry to confine in the system to remove the duplicate states. Such removal is achieved by inserting a quadratic term with respect to the moment, known as the Wilson mass. In this sense we can insert a Wilson term with symmetry breaking required for confinement, rendering the fermion duplication problem irrelevant, this relationship had not been noticed until the present work, and recent literature results erroneously attribute Wilson’s mass to break of a symmetry of time reversal, which is not necessarily true. In this context, in addition to addressing this relationship, the present dissertation also aims to elucidate some misconceptions regarding the Wilson masses, chirality and other symmetries. In order to validate our central argument we study several systems of interest and compare it with the results in the literature. / Dissertação (Mestrado)