Constrained BV Description of String Field Theory

Abstract

In the conventional BV description of string field theory, the string field Phi is split as Phi = Psi+Psi* where Psi includes all states with ghost number less than or equal to G and describes the spacetime fields, and Psi* includes all states with ghost number >G and describes the spacetime antifields. A new approach is proposed here in which separate string fields Psi and Psi* of unrestricted ghost number describe the spacetime fields and antifields. The string antifield Psi* is constrained to satisfy Psi* = {\partial L}/{\partial(Q Psi)} where L is the BV Lagrangian and Q is the worldsheet BRST operator. Dirac antibrackets are defined using this constraint, and the resulting description is equivalent to the conventional BV description for open and closed bosonic string field theory. For open superstring field theory, this constrained BV description is much simpler than the conventional BV description and allows the BV action to be expressed in the same WZW-like form as the classical action.

21 pages harvmac tex

References in corpus (5)

• Introduction to string field theory
• Review of Open Superstring Field Theory
• Validity of Gauge-Fixing Conditions and the Structure of Propagators in Open Superstring Field Theory
• Gauge fixing of open superstring field theory in the Berkovits non-polynomial formulation
• Democratic Superstring Field Theory: Gauge Fixing

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Resolving Witten's Superstring Field Theory
• NS-NS Sector of Closed Superstring Field Theory
• Complete Action for Open Superstring Field Theory with Cyclic $A_{\infty }$ Structure
• Analytic Solution for Tachyon Condensation in Berkovits' Open Superstring Field Theory
• Complete action for open superstring field theory
• From the Berkovits formulation to the Witten formulation in open superstring field theory
• Type II Superstring Field Theory: Geometric Approach and Operadic Description
• $A_{\infty }$ structure from the Berkovits formulation of open superstring field theory
• Validity of Gauge-Fixing Conditions and the Structure of Propagators in Open Superstring Field Theory
• Open superstring field theory based on the supermoduli space
• String Field Theory
• Relating Berkovits and $A_{\infty }$ Superstring Field Theories; Large Hilbert Space Perspective
• On-shell equivalence of two formulations for superstring field theory
• The Ramond Sector of Heterotic String Field Theory
• Comments on complete actions for open superstring field theory
• Perturbative path-integral of string field and the $A_{\infty }$ structure of the BV master equation
• Fermion scattering amplitudes from gauge-invariant actions for open superstring field theory
• Analytical solutions of pure-spinor superstring field theory
• Relation between the Reducibility Structures and between the Master Actions in the Witten Formulation and the Berkovits Formulation of Open Superstring Field Theory
• On the BV formalism of open superstring field theory in the large Hilbert space
• $A_{\infty }$ Action of Open $\mathcal{N}=2$ Superstring Field Theory
• On Democratic String Field Theories