What are good introductory texts on String Theory/ M-Theory and on General Relativity? (I have a B.S. in physics and a year of graduate experience, but have had basically nothing on strings and only limited exposure to GR.) Also, does one need to be very well versed in General Relativity before approaching M-Theory? How much Quantum Field Theory does one need to know before studying M-Theory (e.g. one semester of grad level, two semesters, etc?)
Would I get more responses if I posted in a different forum? (This doesn’t seem to be a “great debate”, and textbooks clearly don’t qualify as works of literature.)
I know there are some people on this board who are qualified to recommend graduate level physics texts.
I think you are best off emailing Chronos. He is currently in a physics department, and he may even specialize in GR. (I did, but I finished over 15 years ago. I’m sure there are better books out than I know.) Be aware that string theory, and I presume M-theory - hey it didn’t exist when I was in school - are pretty rough sledding. Do you really have the mathematical talent or skills to work through it?
I would guess, and this is a guess, that you need the equivalent of two graduate level semesters of QFT to really start on string theory. Most of the string theorists I knew only had one semester of formal GR, and I don’t know that they really needed that. (String theory usually assumes Poincare invariance, which is one reason I disliked it.) You are going to want to be comfortable with string theory before diving in to M-theory, at least as I understand it. It addresses one of the other shortcomings of string theory that I disliked, but the mathematics has to be dramatically more complex.
I don’t think it’s still in print, but James Coleman wrote Relativity for the Layman. I can’t say I’ve read it, but my brother has, and he loves it. Also, Prof. Coleman is a heck of a guy. Really funny in a professor kind of way. He was my chess club advisor in high school after he retired from teaching in college, and insisted on us saying “Fork You!” whenever we forked someone with a knight. OK, it’s not a knee-slapper, but picture a 70 year old man saying it. It’s very cute, and I think he brought that kind of humor to the book.
For a non-mathmatical introduction to general relativity, try Robert Geroch’s book, Relativity from A to B.
For a rigorous mathmatical introduction, you might want to look at Bernard Schutz’s book, A First Course in General Relativity