The Veneziano Amplitude in any Dimension and a Virasoro-Shapiro Partial Amplitude

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how the Veneziano partial amplitude of bosonic string theory admits a generalization to world-(hyper)surfaces of any dimension $d$. In particular, for $d=2$, by carving up the worldsheet integral according to stipulations imposed on conformal cross ratios, the Virasoro-Shapiro full amplitude can be decomposed into a sum of three partial amplitudes. The amplitudes obtained on generalizing the Veneziano amplitude all contain tachyons. To explore candidate tachyon-free and supersymmetric versions of these amplitudes, a new bootstrap principle is introduced and applied, which demands that towers of residues alternate between all-even and all-odd spin partial waves.

version 2, matching the journal version: various passages reformulated, 3 new references