Asymptotic Freedom and Dirichlet String Theory, UR-1288, ER-40685-737

Fixed angle scattering at high energy in a string theory with boundaries satisfying Dirichlet conditions (Dirichlet strings) in $D=4$ is shown to have logarithmic dependence on energy, in addition to the power-like behavior known before. High temperature free energy also depends logarithmically on temperature. Such a result could provide a matching mechanism between strings at long distance and asymptotic freedom at short distance, which is necessary for the reformulation of large-$N$ QCD as a string theory.