<p>String theory has proved to be a valuable theoretical laboratory for probing gravity and gauge theory in a unified framework. In this thesis some of the exciting spin-offs of string theory such as branes and higher spin are studied. After a review of the basics of string theory the four papers of the thesis are discussed. In the first paper we support the equivalence between two descriptions of non-commutative open strings by calculating scattering amplitudes in both approaches. The second paper gives a physical interpretation of the fact that Ramond-Ramond charge in string theory on SU(2) is only defined modulo an integer. In the third paper we calculate contributions to the stress-energy tensor of higher-spin theory in four dimensional AdS space, and in the last paper of the thesis we compare the free energy of the two dimesional type 0A extremal blackhole and find agreement with the corresponding quantity in a deformed matrix model.</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.

String theory has proved to be a valuable theoretical laboratory for probing gravity and gauge theory in a unified framework. In this thesis some of the exciting spin-offs of string theory such as branes and higher spin are studied. After a review of the basics of string theory the four papers of the thesis are discussed. In the first paper we support the equivalence between two descriptions of non-commutative open strings by calculating scattering amplitudes in both approaches. The second paper gives a physical interpretation of the fact that Ramond-Ramond charge in string theory on SU(2) is only defined modulo an integer. In the third paper we calculate contributions to the stress-energy tensor of higher-spin theory in four dimensional AdS space, and in the last paper of the thesis we compare the free energy of the two dimesional type 0A extremal blackhole and find agreement with the corresponding quantity in a deformed matrix model.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de la physique mathématique des interactions fondamentales. Elle porte sur l'étude des théories de champs qui décrivent les particules élémentaires. En particulier, les théories de champs de spin élevé (plus grand ou égal à 2) sont analysées. Mis à part pour le graviton, vecteur supposé des interactions gravitationnelles, il n'y a aucun indice que ces champs soient présents dans la nature. Cependant leur existence n'est pas impossible théoriquemement et ils interviennent dans la théorie des cordes, candidate pour une théorie quantique d'unification de toutes les forces fondamentales y compris la gravitation. En effet, les modes de vibration de la corde élémentaire sont décrits par des champs de spin élevé.  <p>Dans ce travail, la dimension de l'espace-temps est laissée arbitraire, ce qui entraine la possibilité d'avoir plusieurs sortes (= représentations) de champs différentes ayant le même spin.<p>Le premier aspect traité dans cette thèse concerne les dualités, symétries qui relient entre elles plusieurs théories. Il est montré que différentes représentations de champs de spin élevé sont duales au niveau de l'action. En particulier, en dimension quatre, la dualité échange la composante électrique et la composante magnétique d'un même champs. Cette propriété est ensuite utilisée pour introduire des sources magnétiques pour les champs de spin élevé. La construction généralise les travaux de Dirac sur le couplage au champ électromagnétique de monopoles magnétiques. Une condition de quantification est également dérivée pour des quantités conservées, qui généralise la condition de quantification de Dirac pour la charge électrique en présence de monopoles magnétiques.<p>La deuxième partie de la thèse est consacrée aux interactions de champs de spin élevé. L'analyse est effectuée dans le formalisme de champs et d'antichamps dévelopé par Batalin et Vilkovsky. Elle repose sur la procédure de déformation de l'équation maîtresse mise au point par Henneaux et Barnich. Les champs étudiés sont les champs de spin deux exotiques (c-à-d différents du graviton) ainsi que les champs de spin trois complètement symétriques. Pour les premiers, il est prouvé que toutes les interactions doivent être abélienne. Il n'y a donc pas d'équivalent de la théorie d'Einstein pour ces champs. Dans le cas des champs de spin trois, plusieurs vertex cohérents au premier ordre sont obtenus.<p><p><br><p><p>In this thesis, we consider two aspects of higher-spin gauge field theories: dualities and interactions.<p>The first aspect is related to the presence of dualities, i.e. 'hidden' symmetries among gauge field theories. Do two higher-spin theories corresponding to different irreducible representations of the Poincaré group have the same physical content. Duality relations were already known at the level of the equations of motion and Bianchi identities, here we prove (in some cases) that these dualities hold also at the level of the action. As a consequence, the dual theories are formally equivalent. For example, in five space-time dimensions the spin-two theory of Pauli and Fierz is dual to the theory of a mixed-symmetry spin-two field written by Curtright. <p><p>In four space-time dimensions the duality exchanges the electric and magnetic degrees of freedom of the field. This property leads us to introduce external magnetic sources for higher-spin fields, thereby generalizing to arbitrary spin the work of Dirac on the coupling of magnetic monopoles to the electromagnetic field. Similarly to the quantization condition on the product of the electric and magnetic charges for electromagnetism, there is a quantization condition on the product of conserved ``electric' and ``magnetic' charges for higher spins.<p><p>The second aspect of higher-spin gauge field theories that is analysed in this thesis is the problem of interactions. Self-interactions of exotic spin-two gauge fields are studied, as well as self-interactions of completely symmetric spin-three fields. This is done in the BRST field-antifield formalism developped by Batalin and Vilkovisky, using the technique of consistent deformations of the master equation proposed by Barnich and Henneaux. <p><p> / Doctorat en sciences, Spécialisation physique / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La théorie des spins élevés est le domaine de la physique théorique au centre de cette thèse. Le contexte général de la naissance de cette théorie est présentée dans l’introduction. La première partie est axée sur les ingrédients (méthode de Noether, fonctions génératrices et formalisme ambiant) permettant la construction de vertex cubiques entre un champ scalaire de matière et un champ de jauge de spin élevé dans un espace-temps à courbure constante à partir des courants conservés en espace-temps plat. Dans un second temps, nous préparons les éléments pour un futur test de la correspondance holographique à l’ordre cubique voire quartique en la constante de couplage. Plus précisément, nous révisons en détail le calcul de certains propagateurs, ce qui nous mène à calculer les fonctions à trois points impliquant deux scalaires. La dernière partie, bien que concernant toujours l’holographie des spins élevés, traite de la physique non-relativiste. Les symétries et les courants d’un gaz parfait/unitaire de Fermi y sont étudiés. Le lien entre physiques relativiste et non-relativiste est obtenue grâce à la réduction dimensionnelle de Bargmann. / The higher spin theory is the field of theoretical physics at the center of this thesis. The general context of the birth of this theory is presenting in the introduction. The first part focuses on the ingredients (Noether method, generating functions and ambient formalism) for the construction of cubic vertices between a scalar matter field and a higher spin gauge field in a constant curvature space-time from conserved currents in flat space-time. In a second step, we prepare the around for a future test of the holographic correspondence in the cubic or quartic order in the coupling constant. More specifically, we review in detail the computation of some propagators, which leads us to calculate three-point functions involving two scalars. The last part, although always on the higher spin holography, deals with non-relativistic physics. Symmetries and currents of an ideal or unitary Fermi gas are studied. The link between relativistic and non-relativistic physics is obtained by Bargmann dimensional reduction.

The present thesis is divided into three parts. In Part I we address a problem within Higher-Spin Gauge Theory in dimension three: namely, that of computing the asymptotic symmetry algebra of supersymmetric models, describing an infinite spectrum of integer and half-integer higher-spin fields. In Part II we investigate higher-spin theories in dimension four or greater, where we classify the consistent cross interactions between free gauge fermions of arbitrary spin and a photon or a graviton. A third part supplements the bulk of the manuscript with technical appendices. <p><p>Part I is concerned with the Higher-Spin Theory extending the anti-de Sitter orthosymplectic Supergravity in three dimensions. After recalling the construction of the latter we exhibit the structure of the former, and then explain how to generalize the boundary conditions for Supergravity to the higher-spin case. Following the usual procedure, we compute the form of the residual gauge parameter and then identify the Poisson-bracket algebra governing the asymptotic dynamics. It is found to be a nonlinear, supersymmetric algebra of the W-infinity type with same central charge as pure Gravity in the Virasoro sector, which is a subalgebra thereof. The simply supersymmetric case is treated explicitly whereas the details of the extended cases are relegated to the appendices. <p><p>Part II deals with the interaction problem for gauge fermions coupled to Electromagnetism and Gravity in flat spacetime of arbitrary dimension. First we recall the so-called BRST-Antifield techniques, which reformulate the deformation problem as a cohomological one, recasting the familiar Noether procedure for finding out interactions in a mathematically systematic way. We then use these methods to classify and obtain expressions for the gauge-invariant cubic couplings between a symmetric tensor-spinor and a spin-1 and spin-2 gauge field. With no input from previous works, we find the complete list of interaction terms with minimal assumptions and in particular shed light on the quartic obstructions to full consistency. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished