String theory on the edge
Open string vacuum configurations are described in terms of a one-dimensional field theory on the worldsheet boundary. The one-dimensional path integral has direct physical interpretation as a source term for closed string fields. This means that the vacuum divergences (Mobius infinities) of the path integral must be renormalized correctly. The author shows that reparametrization invariance Ward identities, apart from specifying the equations of motion of spacetime background gauge fields, also serve to fix the renormalization scheme of the vacuum divergences. He argues that vacuum configurations of open strings correspond to Caldeira-Leggett models of dissipative quantum mechanics (DQM) evaluated at a delocalization critical point. This connection reveals that critical DQM will manifest reparametrization invariance (inherited from the conformal invariance of string theory) rather than just scale invariance. This connection should open up new ways of constructing analytic and approximate solutions of open string theory (in particular, topological solitons such as monopoles and instantons). Type I superstring theory gives rise to a supersymmetric boundary field theory. Bose-Fermi cancellation eliminates vacuum divergences but the one-loop beta function remains the same as in the bosonic theory. Reparametrization invariance Ward identities dictate a boundary state normalization which yields consistent string-loop corrections to spacetime equations of motion, in both the periodic and anti-periodic fermion sectors.
- Research Organization:
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 5219262
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COMPOSITE MODELS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS OF MOTION
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
FEYNMAN PATH INTEGRAL
FIELD THEORIES
INTEGRALS
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PARTICLE MODELS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
QUARK MODEL
RENORMALIZATION
STRING MODELS
SUPERSYMMETRY
SYMMETRY
VACUUM STATES
WARD IDENTITY