English

Connecting Solutions in Open String Field Theory with Singular Gauge Transformations

High Energy Physics - Theory 2015-06-03 v2

Abstract

We show that any pair of classical solutions of open string field theory can be related by a formal gauge transformation defined by a gauge parameter UU without an inverse. We investigate how this observation can be used to construct new solutions. We find that a choice of gauge parameter consistently generates a new solution only if the BRST charge maps the image of UU into itself. When this occurs, we argue that UU naturally defines a star algebra projector which describes a surface of string connecting the boundary conformal field theories of the classical solutions related by UU. We also note that singular gauge transformations give the solution space of open string field theory the structure of a category, and we comment on the physical interpretation of this observation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1201.5119,
  title  = {Connecting Solutions in Open String Field Theory with Singular Gauge Transformations},
  author = {Theodore Erler and Carlo Maccaferri},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1201.5119},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

V2: minor improvements, added citations

R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:09:13.843Z