Notes on Strings and Higher Spins

These notes are devoted to the intriguing and still largely unexplored links between String Theory and Higher Spins, the types of excitations that lie behind its most cherished properties. A closer look at higher-spin fields provides some further clues that String Theory describes a broken phase of a Higher-Spin Gauge Theory. Conversely, string amplitudes contain a wealth of information on higher-spin interactions that can clarify long-standing issues related to their infrared behavior.
Comment: 36 pages, LaTeX, one eps figure. Misprints corrected. Version to be reprinted in a special J. Phys. A issue devoted to Higher--Spin Theory, eds. M. Gaberdiel and M.A. Vasiliev