skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: BRST-invariant transitions between closed and open strings

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev. D; (United States)

We consider the problem of how closed strings couple to open strings. We obtain a Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin- (BRST-) invariant ''first-quantized'' operator UPSILON which codes off-shell transitions between a single closed-string state and a single open-string state. UPSILON is obtained in both the bosonic and the fermionic language for the ghosts. We confirm that UPSILON implies the correct scattering amplitudes for one closed string in its tachyonic and massless states and any number of tachyon open strings. Our BRST-invariant transition operator is then used in a novel analysis of the Cremmer-Scherk-Higgs mechanism, in which the open-string photon and the closed-string antisymmetric tensor get a mass. We close with some remarks on the possible usefulness of our methods for string field theory.

Research Organization:
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08855-0849
OSTI ID:
6139978
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Vol. 36:2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English