My Favourite Strings

Written on the occasion of the PhD defense of Marcel Vonk, 24 October 2003.
Thesis title: "Dual perspectives on extended objects in string theory"

Music: My Favourite Things (Richard Rodgers; performed by Julie Andrews)
Lyrics: Sikke M. Kingma, Maarten Kleinhans (after Oscar Hammerstein II)

Type IIA five-branes with tricky partitions
Manifolds, worldsheets and quantum conditions
Higher loop amplitude topology
Anti-holomorphic anomaly

RR 3-form fields, Narain theta-functions
Entropy arguments, toroidal junctions
May all be wonderful, intricate things
Albeit not what I like most about strings

When I'm stumbling, when I'm fumbling
When I'm feeling sad
I simply start wearing my favourite strings
And then I don't feel so bad

Pondering "Whichever theory does it?"
I try on a string and come out of the closet
And whether it's Type I or IIA or B
It's fine if it's supersymmetric on me

My other two theories are heterotic
I don't think their closed strings are all that erotic
However, in summer, when I'm on the sea
I must confess my choice of string is a "G"!

When I'm stumbling, when I'm fumbling
When I'm feeling sad
I simply start wearing my favourite strings
And then I do feel so bad

If you don't see that my string has extension
It's 'cause it's curled up in a higher dimension
So if to you I seem to be in the nude
In my world I might be considered a prude

None of the ladies suspects my objective
When I watch the world from a dual perspective
If you think you're wearing a necklace of beads
From my view you're here under my supersheets

When I'm stumbling, when I'm fumbling
When I'm feeling sad
I simply start wearing my favourite strings
And then I do feel so bad