Pointless strings

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5011253

Periwal, V

The author proves that bosonic string perturbation theory diverges and is not Borel summable. This is an indication of a non-perturbative instability of the bosonic string vacuum. He formulates two-dimensional sigma models in terms of algebras of functions. He extends this formulation to general C* algebras. He illustrates the utility of these algebraic notions by calculating some determinants of interest in the study of string propagation in orbifold backgrounds. He studies the geometry of spaces of field theories and show that the vanishing of the curvature of the natural Gel'fand-Naimark-Segal metric on such spaces is exactly the strong associativity condition of the operator product expansion.He shows that string scattering amplitudes arise as invariants of renormalization, when he formulates renormalization in terms of rescalings of the metric on the string world-sheet.

• Research Organization: Princeton Univ., NJ (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5011253
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645400* -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ALGEBRA
AMPLITUDES
BOSONS
COMPOSITE MODELS
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
FIELD THEORIES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICS
METRICS
PARTICLE MODELS
PERTURBATION THEORY
QUARK MODEL
SCATTERING AMPLITUDES
SIGMA MODEL
STRING MODELS
VACUUM STATES