Fundamentals of the Pure Spinor Formalism (UvA-Proefschriften)

This thesis presents recent developments within the pure spinor formalism, which has simplified amplitude computations in perturbative string theory, especially when spacetime fermions are involved. Firstly the worldsheet action of both the minimal and the non-minimal pure spinor formalism is derived from first principles, i.e. from an action with two dimensional diffeomorphism and Weyl invariance. Secondly the decoupling of unphysical states in the minimal pure spinor formalism is proved. Joost Hoogeveen (1984) studied physics and mathematics, initially at the University of Amsterdam. In 2004 he continued these studies at the University of Cambridge. In 2005 he started his PhD research at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Amsterdam.