On the Conformal Field Theories for Bosonic Strings in PP-Waves

Abstract

Recently Kazama and Yokoi (arXiv:0801.1561 [hep-th]) have used a phase-space method to study the Virasoro algebra of type IIB superstring theory in the maximally supersymmetric R-R plane wave background in a semi-light-cone gauge. Two types of normal ordering have been considered, namely "phase space normal ordering" (PNO) and "massless normal ordering" (MNO). The second one, which is the right one to choose in flat background, has been discarded with the argument that the Virasoro algebra closes only in the first case. To understand this issue better with a completely covariant treatment we consider the easiest case of bosonic strings propagating in an arbitrary pp-wave of the simplest kind. Using the phase-space method we show that MNO is in fact the right one to choose because of the following reason. For both types of normal ordering the energy-momentum tensor satisfies the desired Virasoro algebra up to anomalous terms proportional to the space-time equation of motion of the background. However, it is MNO which gives rise to the correct spectrum - we compute the quadratic space-time action by restricting the string field inside a transverse Hilbert space. This turns out to be non-diagonal. Diagonalizing this action reproduces the spectrum directly obtained in light-cone quantization. The same method with PNO gives rise to a spectrum with negative dimensions.

19 pages

References in corpus (11)

• Closed String Field Theory: Quantum Action and the BV Master Equation
• Introduction to string field theory
• Exactly solvable model of superstring in Ramond-Ramond plane wave background
• String vacuum backgrounds with covariantly constant null Killing vector and 2d quantum gravity
• Finite sigma models and exact string solutions with Minkowski signature metric
• Strings in plane-fronted gravitational waves
• Superstring in the plane-wave background with RR flux as a conformal field theory
• A Universality in PP-Waves
• Tachyon Condensation and Non-BPS D-branes in a Ramond-Ramond Plane Wave Background
• General Operator Solutions and BRST Quantization of Superstrings in the pp-Wave with Torsion
• Covariant BRST Quantization of Closed Strings in the PP-Wave Background

Cited by in corpus (6)

• On a coordinate independent description of string worldsheet theory
• Superstrings in type IIB R-R plane-wave in semi-light-cone gauge and conformal invariance
• Dynamical supersymmetry analysis of conformal invariance for superstrings in type IIB R-R plane-wave
• DeWitt-Virasoro construction
• DeWitt-Virasoro construction in tensor representations
• String worldsheet theory in hamiltonian framework and background independence