Calculations in perturbative string theories

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:7162412

Sloan, J H

Several perturbative calculations in string theories are presented. In part I, we calculate the complete low energy effective action to quartic order in the bosonic fields for the heterotic string. We find that, in addition to the term involving {zeta}(3) found previously, there are terms of the form Tr(F{sup 2} - R{sup 2}){sup 2} and four and six derivative terms. We also show that the heterotic effective action reduces to that of the superstring when the gauge connection is equal to the generalized spin connection. In part II, we use unitarity to calculate the width of states in the first massive level in the type II and heterotic superstring theories. We find that the unitarity cuts which arise in string loop amplitudes correspond to those which are predicted by the low energy effective field theory. In part III, we use functional integral techniques to calculate the scattering amplitude for four open off shell tachyons in Witten's string field theory and show that the residues of the first three poles agree with those obtained using oscillator methods.

• Research Organization: Princeton Univ., NJ (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7162412
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

653000 -- Nuclear Theory
657000* -- Theoretical & Mathematical Physics
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
AMPLITUDES
BOSONS
CALCULATION METHODS
COMPOSITE MODELS
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
FIELD THEORIES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARTICLE MODELS
PERTURBATION THEORY
QUARK MODEL
SCATTERING AMPLITUDES
STRING MODELS