Tensionless Tales: Vacua and Critical Dimensions

Abstract

Recently, a careful canonical quantisation of the theory of closed bosonic tensionless strings has resulted in the discovery of three separate vacua and hence three different quantum theories that emerge from this single classical tensionless theory. In this note, we perform lightcone quantisation with the aim of determination of the critical dimension of these three inequivalent quantum theories. The satisfying conclusion of a rather long and tedious calculation is that one of vacua does not lead to any constraint on the number of dimensions, while the other two give $D=26$. This implies that all three quantum tensionless theories can be thought of as consistent sub-sectors of quantum tensile bosonic closed string theory.

arXiv comment21 pages (+ 30 pages in appendices)

References in corpus (28)

• Classical central extension for asymptotic symmetries at null infinity in three spacetime dimensions
• The BMS/GCA correspondence
• Carroll versus Newton and Galilei: two dual non-Einsteinian concepts of time
• Holography of 3d Flat Cosmological Horizons
• Entanglement entropy in Galilean conformal field theories and flat holography
• GCA in 2d
• Classical and Quantized Tensionless Strings
• Non-Relativistic Strings and Limits of the AdS/CFT Correspondence
• Flat-Space Chiral Gravity
• Strings with Non-Relativistic Conformal Symmetry and Limits of the AdS/CFT Correspondence
• Tensionless Strings and Galilean Conformal Algebra
• Tensionless Strings from Worldsheet Symmetries
• On the null origin of the ambitwistor string
• String Theory and String Newton-Cartan Geometry
• Tensionless Strings, WZW Models at Critical Level and Massless Higher Spin Fields
• Relating non-relativistic string theories
• Nonrelativistic String Theory in Background Fields
• A Tale of Three. Tensionless strings and vacuum structure
• Tensionless Superstrings: View from the Worldsheet
• Torsional Newton Cartan gravity from non-relativistic strings
• Eisenhart lifts and symmetries of time-dependent systems
• The tensionless path from closed to open strings
• Rindler on the Worldsheet
• Inhomogeneous Tensionless Superstrings
• Hamiltonian BRST Quantization of the Conformal String
• The complex null string, Galilean conformal algebra and scattering equations
• BMS Field Theories and Weyl Anomaly
• Tensionless branes and the null string critical dimension

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Scattering Amplitudes: Celestial and Carrollian
• Aspects of Nonrelativistic Strings
• Conformal Carroll Scalars with Boosts
• On the Non-Relativistic Expansion of Closed Bosonic Strings
• Carroll covariant scalar fields in two dimensions
• A Rindler Road to Carrollian Worldsheets
• Horizon Strings as 3d Black Hole Microstates
• Carrollian Yang-Mills Theory