BRST quantization of Carroll-Weyl gauged null strings
Abstract
We study the BRST quantization of the null string after completing its local gauge symmetry by Carroll-Weyl transformations. The resulting worldsheet theory possesses three first-class constraints, , , and , whose modes realize a Weyl-BMS algebra. The additional Carroll-Weyl constraint qualitatively changes the quantum gauge complex: its scalar -ghost is intrinsically coupled to the BMS -ghost sector, and the anomaly analysis involves three independent cocycles rather than a single Virasoro-type central charge. Starting from the gauge-fixed action, we derive the complete Faddeev-Popov complex, construct the matter and ghost currents and the BRST charge, and evaluate their equal-time operator products in the flipped, equivalently highest-weight, representation. The matter and ghost anomaly coefficients are and . Because the corresponding central terms multiply linearly independent ghost bilinears in , BRST nilpotency requires the three conditions , , and , respectively. These conditions are mutually incompatible. Consequently, there is no target-space dimension in which the minimal flat Carroll-Weyl matter-plus-ghost complex is anomaly-free in the highest-weight representation. The familiar condition of the ILST null string is recovered only after truncation to the two-constraint BMS subsector, which defines a different quantum gauge complex.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2608.02731,
title = {BRST quantization of Carroll-Weyl gauged null strings},
author = {Sarthak Duary and Sourav Maji},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.02731},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
39+18 pages