Lectures on Twistors

Abstract

In these lectures I will discuss the following topics: (1) Twistors in 4 flat dimensions: Massless particles; constrained phase space (x,p) versus twistors; Physical states in twistor space. (2) Introduction to 2T-physics and derivation of 1T-physics holographs and twistors: Emergent spacetimes & dynamics, holography, duality; Sp(2,R) gauge symmetry, constraints, solutions and (d,2); Global symmetry, quantization and the SO(d,2) singleton. (3) Twistors for particle dynamics in d dimensions, particles with mass, relativistic, non-relativistic, in curved spaces, with interactions. (4)Supersymmetric 2T-physics, gauge symmetries & twistor gauge: Coupling (X,P,g), gauge symmetries, global symmetries; Covariant quantization, constrained generators & representations of G_(super); Twistor gauge, supertwistors dual to super phase space, examples in d=4,6,10,11. (5) Supertwistors and some field theory spectra in d=4,6: Super Yang-Mills d=4, N=4; Supergravity d=4, N=8; Self-dual tensor supermultiplet and conformal theory in d=6. (6) Twistor superstrings: d+2 view of twistor superstring in d=4; Worldsheet anomalies and quantization of twistor superstring; Open problems.