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Causality in Covariant String Field Theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2014-11-18 v1

Abstract

Causality is studied in the covariant formulation of free string field theory (SFT). We find that, though the string field in the covariant formulation is a functional of the ghost coordinates as well as the space-time coordinate and the latter contains the time-like oscillators with negative norm, the condition for the commutator of two open string fields to vanish is simply given by 0πdσ(ΔXμ(σ))2>0\int_0^\pi d\sigma\left(\Delta X^\mu(\sigma)\right)^2 >0, which is the same condition as in the light-cone gauge SFT. For closed SFT, the corresponding condition is given in a form which is manifestly invariant under the rigid shifts of the σ\sigma parameters of the two string fields.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9608128,
  title  = {Causality in Covariant String Field Theory},
  author = {Hiroyuki Hata and Hajime Oda},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9608128},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

11 pages + 1 eps figure, LaTeX