N=8 Supergravity and Beyond: What Symmetry can Teach us about Quantum Gravity and the Unification of Physics

Abstract

Recent developments indicate that the search for underlying symmetries generalizing the duality symmetries known from supergravity and superstring theories may be a key towards a better understanding what M Theory (the hypothetical non-perturbative formulation of string theory) may be. In this talk the speaker will review some recent advances at an introductory level, with particular emphasis on the role of maximal supergravities in this search.