From - Wed Nov 22 14:53:15 2000 Received: from sv2.ictp.trieste.it (infnts.ts.infn.it [140.105.6.150]) by dfisa2.ts.infn.it (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id QAA25422 for ; Mon, 20 Nov 2000 16:46:53 +0100 (MET) Received: from sv2.ictp.trieste.it (140.105.16.62) by INFNTS with TCP/IP SMTP; Mon, 20 NOV 00 16:46 CET Received: from sv18 (sv18 [140.105.16.138]) by sv2.ictp.trieste.it (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id QAA11583; Mon, 20 Nov 2000 16:45:17 +0100 (MET) Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 16:45:17 +0100 (MET) X-Sender: hussainf@sv18 To: nello paver , rui@ts.infn.it Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII From: Hussain Faheem Dear Nello, Here is my report on the thesis submitted by Alex Quiros for his Ph. D. degree. Regards, Faheem Hussain ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXAMINER'S REPORT ON THE PH. D. THESIS OF ALEX G. QUIROZ BUELVAS "ON STRING DUALITIES AND K-THEORY" PRESENTED FOR THE PH. D. DEGREE OF THE UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRIESTE DIPARTIMENTO DI FISICA TEORICA The thesis is basically a review of recent developments in string theory. After briefly going through the construction of perturbative string theory, the candidate reviews D-branes and the various aspects of string dualities. He then has a section on M-theory and its various compactifications. His final chapter is on the connections between D-branes and K-theory and he concludes with a section on T-duality viewed K-theoretically. Most of the thesis is a review of well known material. The material is presented in short subsections without much calculations. Much of the material is presented without explanation which makes it sometimes hard to follow the arguments. It is more a summary of results than an in depth review. It seems that the candidate has read a lot and I hope that he has mastered all this material but there is nothing original in the major part of the thesis. In Chapter 3 he presents his own original personal view of the Duality Concept in terms of categories. However this needs to be developed much more seriously. At the moment it seems to be more philosophy than physics as he has definitions of what he means by a physical system with which some physicists may not agree. The only thing new is perhaps his representation of the K-theory view of T-duality in section 4.4. I do not think that this is sufficient to award a Ph. D. degree to Mr. Quiros. It also seems that the thesis was written in a hurry and there are a lot of grammatical mistakes in the English which makes it difficult to understand. Faheem Hussain ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Faheem Hussain Office of External Activities The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics P.O. Box 586 Miramare 34100 Trieste ITALY Tel: 0039 040 2240363, FAX: 0039 040 2240443 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~