New Developments in Open - String Theories

The study of string models including both unoriented closed strings and open strings presents a number of new features when compared to the standard case of models of oriented closed strings only. We review some basic features of the construction of these models, describing in particular how gauge symmetry breaking can be achieved in this case. We also review some peculiar properties of the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism that present themselves in lower-dimensional open-string models.(Figures not included) (Talk presented at the Tenth National General Relativity Conference, Bardonecchia, September 1992)