Nonlinear σ-models as S-matrix generating functionals of strings

A formalism is presented for generating string theories from two-dimensional σ-models. Proceeding from an approach wherein the σ-models is understood as a S-matrix generating functional of string amplitudes, both the ϵb-function-zero slope limit correspondence and a systematic α′ expansion for the effective action are developed. Explicit perturbative calculations are provided, applicable to both open and closed strings which can be extended to include loop effect.     

String theory effective actions

We show that the beta functions of the nonlinear sigma models which describe strings propagating in background fields can be used to construct the generating functional for on-shell S-matrix elements of the associated string theories.     

Strings in the operator formalism

We consider string theories in the operator formalism. In particular we develop Polyakov strings completely in the operator language. The operator approach turns out to be economical, self-contained and manifestly modular invariant.     

Diagrammatic operator formalism for string amplitudes

A diagrammatic operator method based on Fock space formulations of 3-string vertices is developed for computing the integration measure for open or closed string S-matrix to arbitrary loop order. The proposed vertex does not triangulate the moduli space, thus a single diagram incorporates a number of string field theory diagrams. However, the formalism does not naturally lead to a single cover of moduli space, and the restriction to the fundamental domain must be put in by hand, as in the Polyakov functional integral approach.     

Superstring theory

Dual string theories, initially developed as phenomenological models of hadrons, now appear more promising as candidates for a unified theory of fundamental interactions. Type I superstring theory (SST I), is a ten-dimensional theory of interacting open and closed strings, with one supersymmetry, that is free from ghosts and tachyons. It requires that an SO(n) or Sp(2n) gauge group be used. A light-cone-gauge string action with space-time supersymmetry automatically incorporates the superstring restrictions and leads to the discovery of type II superstring theory (SST II). SST II is an interacting theory of closed strings only, with two D = 10 supersymmetries, that is also free from ghosts and tachyons. By taking six of the spatial dimensions to form a compact space, it becomes possible to reconcile the models with our four-dimensional perception of spacetime and to define low-energy limits in which SST I reduces to N = 4, D = 4 super Yang-Mills theory and SST II reduces to N = 8, D = 4 supergravity theory. The superstring theories can be described by a light-cone-gauge action principle based on fields that are functionals of string coordinates. With this formalism any physical quantity should be calculable. There is some evidence that, unlike any conventional field theory, the superstring theories provide perturbatively renormalizable (SST I) or finite (SST II) unifications of gravity with other interactions.     

Conformal transformations and string field redefinitions

It is shown that conformal transformations of interaction vertices in Witten-type string field theories are realized to lowest order as nonlinear string field redefinitions. However, these redefinitions induce higher-order interactions. Unlike the redefinitions commonly done in local field theory, the S-matrix beyond tree level is affected. In particular, the change of variables determinant contributes integrals over different regions of moduli space.     

Gravitational waves as string vacua II

Classical propagation of (super)strings through gravitational shock waves is analyzed. The exact classical solutions are used for quantization and for the identification of the exact quantumS-matrix describing string scattering by the wave. ThisS-matrix coincides with theS-matrix of the string-string scattering in theflat space-time for particular profile of the shock wave! This is interpreted as the generation of curved geometry from the flat space-time string theory. The quantum consistence of (super)string motion in gravitational plane wave backgrounds is then studied. It turns out that for the standard dimensionsD=26 (D=10) the vanishing of the Ricci tensor for the plane wave is sufficient condition for vanishing of the Weyl (superWeyl) anomaly. Thus, plane wave solutions of the Einstein equations are automatically the classical (super)string vacua. For particular plane waves the anomaly can be evaluated even nonperturbatively.This is the second part of the review based on the PhD thesis of the author defended in 1989 at SISSA, Trieste.     

Auxiliary supergravity fields,Chern-Simons terms and the heterotic string

The generating functional of target space S-matrix amplitudes is generalized to include auxiliary field and fermionic vertex operators. Using this formalism, a new Green-Schwarz mechanism associated with the auxiliary vector field of the four-dimensional, N=1 supergravity multiplet of the heterotic string is derived.     

Dual models as saddle point approximations to Polyakov's quantized string

We show that if the metric becomes singular on the boundary, then Polyakov's quantized string theory has a saddle point. This leads to an off-shell Green function, the S-matrix of which is the standard dual (Veneziano) model.     

The scattering of strings by a black hole

We study the elastic and inelastic scattering of strings by a Schwarzschild's black hole. Pair creation takes place (and in all the modes) as a consequence of the composite structure (oscillator modes) of the string. The S-matrix amplitudes including the pair-creation rate are found at first order in √α'/R_S (√α' = Planck's length and R_S = Schwarzschild's radius). Explicit computations are made in the weak-field expansion in powers of (R_S/b)^D−3 (b = impact parameter of the string center of mass). The deflection angle and cross sections are found. The quantum string corrections to the gravitational analogue of Rutherford's scattering are computed (these are of order α'²). The pair-creation or radiation amplitude we find here is of order α', it is non-thermal and of different origin than Hawking radiation.     

Transmission coefficient of interacting few-body system in one dimensional space

We present a novel way of defining transmission coefficient of one spatial dimensional few interacting electrons system. The formalism is based on the probability interpretation of unitarity of physical scattering S-matrix. The relation of our formalism to the well-established method for describing the conducting properties of non-interacting systems, Landauer-Büttiker formula, is discussed. The transport properties of interacting two-electron system is also discussed as a specific example of our formalism.     

Baryons and dual unitarization

Processes involving baryons are discussed in the scheme of dual unitarization. In particular, the topological expansion is generalized to any hadronic S-matrix elements involving baryons and/or mesons. Our expansion is based on a model for the baryon propagator, which is a set of three planar Feynman diagrams joined at a junction line. The resulting expansion is a double expansion in 1/N (N= the number of quark flavours) and in the number of baryon loops. Based on this, several new observations are made in phenomenological problems, and a unifying point of view is stressed. The scheme is evidently crossing invariant, and unitarity constraints are imposed order by order in 1/N and in the baryon loop number.     

Point-like structure and off-shell dual strings

We argue that in a consistent off-shell dual formalism the amplitude for the emission of a scalar off-shell state by a string consists of two components. One of these contains the particle poles in the off-shell leg and the other is intimately related to the insertion of a point-like energy density on the string. As a result, the amplitude for a string to emit a zero momentum scalar state into the vacuum (which may be relevant for spontaneous symmetry breaking) is described by the amplitude for a finite fraction of the energy in the string to collapse to a spatial point at some time (this fraction and its space-time position being integrated over). The off-shell amplitudes have an elegant formulation in terms of a set of “confined modes” which can be assigned quark flavour quantum numbers to reproduce the Chan-Paton scheme.We suggest the dual model be modified by allowing for the coupling of scalar closed strings to the vacuum and the resulting effect on the space-time structure of dual Green functions is described.We find that even the emission of a single zero-momentum closed string modifies the elastic amplitude in a significant manner, leading to a power-behaved fixed-angle cross section in contrast to the usual exponential decrease of the dual model. This arises from point-like scattering between energy densities accumulating in the colliding strings. The relationship between the fixed angle and Regge limits is discussed. The fixed angle behaviour is found to be the asymptotic limit in momentum transfer of a fixed pole that arises in the Regge limit.     

Decoherence and CPT Violation in a Stringy Model of Space-Time Foam

I discuss a model inspired from the string/brane framework, in which our Universe is represented (after perhaps appropriate compactification) as a three brane, propagating in a bulk space time punctured by D0-brane (D-particle) defects. As the D3-brane world moves in the bulk, the D-particles cross it, and from an effective observer on D3 the situation looks like a “space-time foam” with the defects “flashing” on and off (“D-particle foam”). The open strings, with their ends attached on the brane, which represent matter in this scenario, can interact with the D-particles on the D3-brane universe in a topologically non-trivial manner, involving splitting and capture of the strings by the D0-brane defects. Such processes are consistently described by logarithmic conformal field theories on the world-sheet of the strings. Physically, they result in effective decoherence of the string matter on the D3 brane, and as a result, of CPT Violation, but of a type that implies an ill-defined nature of the effective CPT operator. Due to electric charge conservation, only electrically neutral (string) matter can exhibit such interactions with the D-particle foam. This may have unique, experimentally detectable (in principle), consequences for electrically-neutral entangled quantum matter states on the brane world, in particular the modification of the pertinent Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Correlation in neutral mesons in an appropriate meson factory. For the simplest scenarios, the order of magnitude of such effects might lie within the sensitivity of upgraded φ-meson factories.     

Virtual black holes in generalized dilaton theories

The virtual black hole phenomenon, which has been observed previously in specific models, is established for generic 2D dilaton gravity theories with scalar matter. The ensuing effective line element can become asymptotically flat only for two classes of models; among them spherically reduced theories and the string inspired dilaton black hole. We present simple expressions for the lowest order scalar field vertices of the effective theory which one obtains after integrating out geometry exactly. Treating the boundary in a natural and simple way, asymptotic states, tree-level vertices and the tree-level S-matrix are conformally invariant. Examples are provided pinpointing the physical consequences of virtual black holes on the (CPT-invariant) S-matrix for gravitational scattering of scalar particles. For minimally coupled scalars the evaluation of the S-matrix in closed form is straightforward. For a class of theories including the string inspired dilation black hole all tree-graph vertices vanish, which explains the particular simplicity of that model and at the same time shows yet another essential difference to the Schwarzschild case.Received: 7 August 2002, Revised: 2 June 2003, Published online: 11 July 2003D.V. Vassilevich: On leave from V. Fock Institute of Physics, St. Petersburg University, 198904 St. Petersburg, Russia     

Relativistic effects in the 3N continuum and the A y puzzle

The three-nucleon (3N) Faddeev equation is solved in a Poincaré-invariant model of the three-nucleon system. Two-body interactions are generated so that when they are added to the two-nucleon invariant mass operator (rest energy) the two-nucleon S-matrix is identical to the non-relativistic S-matrix with a CD Bonn interaction. Cluster properties of the three-nucleon S-matrix determine how these two-nucleon interactions are embedded in the three-nucleon mass operator. Differences in the predictions of the relativistic and corresponding non-relativistic models for elastic and breakup processes are investigated. Of special interest are the lowering of the A _y maximum in elastic nucleon-deuteron (Nd) scattering below ≈25?MeV caused by the Wigner spin rotations and the significant changes of the breakup cross sections in certain regions of the phase space.     

All free string theories are theories of BRST cohomology

The fully gauge-invariant theory of the free open (super) strings is generalized to treat closed (super) strings in the BRST formalism. It is shown that the actions for all theories can be written in the form (Φ,Q_BΦ) using the BRST charge Q_B and the string functional Φ, if the inner product is interpreted appropriately with necessary ghost insertions. Also is shown that consistent truncations of our actions recover all known covariant formulations of (super) strings.     

Hadron potentials within the gauge/string correspondence

It is known, since the 70s, that the large N 't Hooft limit of gauge theories is related to string theories. In 1998, J. M. Maldacena identified precisely such a relation: the so-called AdS/CFT correspondence which speculates a duality between a large N strongly-coupled supersymmetric and conformal Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions and a weakly-coupled string theory defined in a five-dimensional anti-de Sitter AdS₅ space-time. This review aims at introducing concepts and methods used to derive, in the framework of the gauge/string correspondence, the interaction potentials of mesons and baryons at zero and finite temperature. The dual string configurations associated with the different kinds of hadrons are described and their behaviours at short and large distances are understood. Although the application of Maldacena's AdS/CFT conjecture to QCD is not straightforward, QCD being neither supersymmetric nor conformal, the AdS/QCD correspondence approach attempts to identify the dual theory of QCD. Especially, the study of heavy quark-antiquark bound-states leads to establish general dual criteria for the confinement.