M-Theory and Quantum Geometry

the long version

The fundamental structure of matter and spacetime at the shortest length scales remains an exciting frontier of basic research in theoretical physics. A unifying theme in this area is the quantisation of geometrical objects. The majority of contributions to this volume cover recent advances in superstring theory, which is the leading candidate for a unified description of all known elementary particles and interactions. The geometrical concept of one-dimensional extended objects (strings) has always been at the core of superstring theory, but recently the focus has shifted to include higher-dimensional objects (D-branes), which play a key role in non-perturbative dynamics of the theory. Related developments are also described in M-theory, our understanding of quantum effects in black-hole physics, gauge theory of the strong interaction, and the dynamic triangulation construction of the quantum geometry of spacetime.