Shenker's contributions to physics include: • Basic results on the phase structure of gauge theories (with
Eduardo Fradkin) • Basic results on two dimensional conformal field theory and its relation to string theory (with
Daniel Friedan,
Emil Martinec,
Zongan Qiu, and others) • The nonperturbative formulation of matrix models of low-dimensional string theory, the first nonperturbative definitions of string theory (with
Michael R. Douglas) • The discovery of distinctively stringy nonperturbative effects in string theory, later understood to be caused by
D-branes. These effects play a major role in string dynamics • The discovery of Matrix Theory, the first nonperturbative definition of String/M theory in a physical number of dimensions. Matrix Theory (see
matrix string theory) is an example of a
gauge/gravity duality and is now understood to be a special case of the
AdS/CFT correspondence (with
Tom Banks,
Willy Fischler and
Leonard Susskind) • Basic results on the connection between quantum gravity and
quantum chaos (with
Douglas Stanford,
Juan Maldacena and others) ==Selected works==