Tree scattering amplitudes of the spin-4/3 fractional superstring. I. The untwisted sectors

Journal Article · Sun May 15 00:00:00 EDT 1994 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.49.5326· OSTI ID:7206875

Argyres, P C ^[1]; Tye, S H ^[2]

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1. School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 (United States)
2. Newman Laboratory of Nuclear Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 (United States)

Scattering amplitudes of the spin-4/3 fractional superstring are shown to satisfy spurious state decoupling and cyclic symmetry (duality) at the tree level in the string perturbation expansion. This fractional superstring is characterized by the spin-4/3 fractional superconformal algebra---a parafermionic algebra studied by Zamolodchikov and Fateev involving chiral spin-4/3 currents on the world sheet in addition to the stress-energy tensor. Examples of tree scattering amplitudes are calculated in an explicit [ital c]=5 representation of this fractional superconformal algebra realized in terms of free bosons on the string world sheet. The target space of this model is three-dimensional flat Minkowski space-time with a level-2 Ka[hacek c]-Moody so(2,1) internal symmetry, and has bosons and fermions in its spectrum. Its closed string version contains a graviton in its spectrum. Tree-level unitarity (i.e., the no-ghost theorem for space-time bosonic physical states) can be shown for this model. Since the critical central charge of the spin-4/3 fractional superstring theory is 10, this [ital c]=5 representation cannot be consistent at the string loop level. The existence of a critical fractional superstring containing a four-dimensional space-time remains an open question.

• OSTI ID: 7206875
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States) Vol. 49:10; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

662110* -- General Theory of Particles & Fields-- Theory of Fields & Strings-- (1992-)
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
AMPLITUDES
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
BOSONS
CHIRAL SYMMETRY
COMPOSITE MODELS
CONFORMAL GROUPS
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
MINKOWSKI SPACE
PARTICLE MODELS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PERTURBATION THEORY
QUARK MODEL
SCATTERING AMPLITUDES
SPACE
SPACE-TIME
SPECTRA
SPIN
STRING MODELS
SUPERSTRING MODELS
SYMMETRY
SYMMETRY GROUPS