The AdS/CFT correspondence
see also D branes, Holography
books
D-Branes
by Clifford Johnson (CUP, 2003)
Black Holes, Information and the String Theory Revolution
by Leonard Susskind and James Lindsay (World Scientific Publishing, 2005)
reviews for beginners
Supersymmetric Gauge Theories and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
by Eric D'Hoker, Daniel Z. Freedman (hep-th/0201253, 145 pages, 14 figures)
This review covers all the basics in detail, with a calculational focus.
Large N Field Theories, String Theory and Gravity
by O. Aharony, S.S. Gubser, J. Maldacena, H. Ooguri, Y. Oz (hep-th/9905111, 261 pages, 42 figures)
This is the canonical review of AdS/CFT. The gauge-theory perspective is emphasized, but many supergravity issues are also discussed.
all reviews
Scattering Amplitudes, Wilson Loops and the String/Gauge Theory Correspondence
by Luis F. Alday, Radu Roiban [0807.1889, 100 pages]
Quark Soup al dente: Applied Superstring Theory
by R. C. Myers, S. E. Vazquez (0804.2423 [hep-th], 17 pages, 5 figures)
Lectures on Scattering Amplitudes via AdS/CFT
by Luis F. Alday (0804.0951 [hep-th], 23 pages, 6 figures)
Gauge-String Dualities and Some Applications
by Marcus K. Benna, Igor R. Klebanov (0803.1315 [hep-th], 44 pages)
Introduction to AdS-CFT
by Horatiu Nastase (0712.0689 [hep-th], 133 pages, 13 figures)
Mesons in Gauge/Gravity Duals - A Review
by Johanna Erdmenger, Nick Evans, Ingo Kirsch, Ed Threlfall (0711.4467 [hep-th], 115 pages, 32 figures)
Gauge/gravity duality
by Gary Horowitz and Joseph Polchinski (gr-qc/0602037, 20 pages)
The Gauge/String Correspondence Towards Realistic Gauge Theories
by Emiliano Imeroni (hep-th/0312070, 144 pages, 26 figure)
TASI 2003 Lectures on AdS/CFT
by Juan M. Maldacena (hep-th/0309246, 46 pages)
Maldacena's TASI lectures introduce the AdS/CFT correspondence and in particular the plane-wave limit.
Supergravity duals of supersymmetric four dimensional gauge theories
by F. Bigazzi, A. L. Cotrone, M. Petrini, A. Zaffaroni (hep-th/0303191, 85 pages, 1 figure)
Four Lectures On The Gauge/Gravity Correspondence
by M. Bertolini (hep-th/0303160, 84 pages, 7 figures)
Holographic Renormalization Group
by Masafumi Fukuma, So Matsuura, Tadakatsu Sakai (hep-th/0212314, 90 pages, 6 figures)
The non-AdS/non-CFT correspondence, or three different paths to QCD
by Ofer Aharony (hep-th/0212193, 27 pages)
Enumerative geometry and knot invariants
by Marcos Marino (hep-th/0210145, 69 pages, 13 figures)
Lecture Notes on Holographic Renormalization
by Kostas Skenderis (hep-th/0209067, 42 pages)
D-Branes on the Conifold and N=1 Gauge/Gravity Dualities
by Christopher P. Herzog, Igor R. Klebanov, Peter Ouyang (hep-th/0205100, 40 pages)
Rudiments of Holography
by Enrique Alvarez, Jorge Conde, Lorenzo Hernandez (hep-th/0205075, 60 pages)
Wilson loops in SYM theory: from weak to strong coupling
by Gordon W. Semenoff, K. Zarembo (hep-th/0202156, 32 pages, 5 figures)
Supersymmetric Gauge Theories and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
by Eric D'Hoker, Daniel Z. Freedman (hep-th/0201253, 145 pages, 14 figures)
This review covers all the basics in detail, with a calculational focus.
TASI Lectures: Introduction to the AdS/CFT Correspondence
by Igor R. Klebanov (hep-th/0009139, 36 pages)
Klebanov provides a useful first introduction to the AdS/CFT correspondence.
Aspects of the Gauge Theory -- Gravity Correspondence
by Seif Randjbar-Daemi (hep-th/0004204, 20 pages, 5 figures)
Yang-Mills- and D-instantons
by A.V. Belitsky, S. Vandoren, P. van Nieuwenhuizen (hep-th/0004186, 62 pages)
Lattice Gauge Theories and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
by M. Caselle (hep-th/0003119, 80 pages, 6 figure)
What does the string/gauge correspondence teach us about Wilson loops?
by Jacob Sonnenschein (hep-th/0003032, 47 pages, 13 figures)
TASI Lectures on Branes, Black Holes and Anti-de Sitter Space
by M. J. Duff (hep-th/9912164, 122 pages)
Duff reviews the supergravity aspects of AdS/CFT.
N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and the AdS/SCFT correspondence
by Stefano Kovacs (hep-th/9908171, 228 pages)
Large N gauge theories and AdS/CFT correspondence
by Paolo Di Vecchia (hep-th/9908148, 64 pages)
Anti-de Sitter Supersymmetry
by Bernard de Wit, Ivan Herger (hep-th/9908005, 23 pages)
Dynamics of D-brane Black Holes
by Steven S. Gubser (hep-th/9908004, 117 pages)
Large N Field Theories, String Theory and Gravity
by O. Aharony, S.S. Gubser, J. Maldacena, H. Ooguri, Y. Oz (hep-th/9905111, 261 pages, 42 figures)
This is the canonical review of AdS/CFT. The gauge-theory perspective is emphasized, but many supergravity issues are also discussed.
An introduction to AdS/CFT correspondence
by Paolo Di Vecchia (hep-th/9903007, 7 pages)
Introduction to the Maldacena Conjecture on AdS/CFT
by Jens L. Petersen (hep-th/9902131, 71 pages)
Two Lectures on the AdS/CFT Correspondence
by Michael R. Douglas, S. Randjbar-Daemi (hep-th/9902022)
From Threebranes to Large N Gauge Theories
by Igor R. Klebanov (hep-th/9901018, 20 pages)
papers
The Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity
by Juan M. Maldacena (hep-th/9711200, 20 pages)
the original AdS/CFT paper
Gauge Theory Correlators from Non-Critical String Theory
by S.S. Gubser, I.R. Klebanov, A.M. Polyakov (hep-th/9802109, 15 pages)
Anti De Sitter Space And Holography
by Edward Witten (hep-th/9802150, 40 pages)