String Theory Dualities

Abstract

The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure known as $M$-theory. Strings with unusual boundary conditions, known as D-branes, turn out to be soliton solutions of string theory. These have provided a powerful tool to probe the structure of these theories. Most dramatically, they have yielded a partial understanding of the thermodynamics of black holes in a consistent quantum mechanical framework. In this brief talk, I attempt to give some flavor of these developments.