Recent years have brought a revival of work on string theory, which haeen a source of fascination since its origins nearly twenty years ago.There seems to be a widely perceived need for a systematic, pedagogical exposition of the present state of knowledge about string theory. We hope that thiook will help to meet this need. To give a prehensive account of such a vast topic as string theory would scarcely be possible,even in two volumes with the length to which these have grown. Indeed,we have had to omit many important subjects, while treating others only sketchily. String field theory is omitted entirely (though the subject of chapter 11 is closely related to light-cone string field theory). Conformal field theory is not developed systematically, though much of the background material needed to understand recent papers on this subject is presented in chapter 3 and elsewhere.

在杨-米尔斯理论发表50周年之际，这本无价的文集回顾了由这一美妙思想引发出来的基本粒子物理的发展和成就。 在过去的50年，作为理论物理不可否认的最重要的基础，杨一米尔斯理论得到了广阔的发展。从各种视角对这一理论进行的研究，使理论以许多新的、没有预想到的面貌被揭示出来。在最近几十年，从高能物理延伸出去，该理论已经活跃地应用在物理学的其他分支中，诸如统计物理、凝聚态物理和非线性系统等，使这一理论成为所有从事物理学工作的人无法回避的课题。 在这本文集上发表文章或作更详细的技术上说明的是一个国际的专家团队，他们中的每一位专家都曾在这一非凡理论的发展中留下过自己的足迹。这些文章又从各位专家独到的视角凸现了这些新发现。