A brief review of "little string theories"

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current understanding of six-dimensional maximally supersymmetric little string theories, covering their definitions, properties, motivations, and holographic constructions, highlighting their non-gravitational string-like features.

Contribution

It provides a concise overview of the key aspects and recent developments in the study of little string theories, especially their holographic and DLCQ formulations.

Findings

Little string theories exhibit string-like properties without gravity.

Holographic duals of little string theories have been constructed.

Finite energy density behavior of these theories is characterized.

Abstract

This is a brief review of the current state of knowledge on "little string theories", which are non-gravitational theories having several string-like properties. We focus on the six dimensional maximally supersymmetric "little string theories" and describe their definition, some of their simple properties, the motivations for studying them, the DLCQ and holographic constructions of these theories and their behaviour at finite energy density. (Contribution to the proceedings of Strings '99 in Potsdam, Germany.)