Books about string theory, wormholes, black holes, etc

[mvillagra]

I have a computer science background, so I don't know about this. Can somebody give me some recommendations on good introductory books about
-String Theory
- Wormholes
-Black holes
etc.

I'm looking something for academics, not for general public. So maybe books for 1st year graduate students or advanced undergrad will fit.

Thanks :smile:

[Reedeegi]

How much physics background do you have? How much math have you had? To do black holes, one would have to do General Relativity, which requires a background in abstract algebra and/or differential geometry along with some topology. For string theory, you need graduate-level algebraic geometry and topology skills, high-level abstract algebra, functional analysis, and even some category theory in order to study it. Not only that; you need some heavy-duty Quantum Field Theory before you do string theory.

I'm just assuming from your background that you may not have all of this. But when you do learn it, a great book for GR and Black Holes is Wald's General Relativity, but I don't know about a good one for string theory. I have Becker, Becker, and Schwarz's String Theory and M-Theory, and it is pretty good, but I don't have all of the math prerequisites to read it yet.

[atyy]

http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/string.html
http://www.ift.uam.es/paginaspersonales/angeluranga/firstpage.html

[mvillagra]

I work in quantum computing, so my background on physics and mathematics is graduate-level of linear algebra, functional analysis, complex analysis and quantum theory, and undergraduate level of abstract algebra, geometry, and very basic topology. I don't know anything about quantum field theory nor category theory.

According to that background, which books are recommended?

[atyy]

Zwiebach has a nice book for undergraduates.

[mvillagra]

thanks for the links, I will check them out.

The Zwiebach book looks great, although I can only read the table of contents from amazon, but its a good price.