English

Covariant Calculus for Effective String Theories

High Energy Physics - Theory 2007-09-13 v1 High Energy Physics - Lattice

Abstract

A covariant calculus for the construction of effective string theories is developed. Effective string theory, describing quantum string-like excitations in arbitrary dimension, has in the past been constructed using the principles of conformal field theory, but not in a systematic way. Using the freedom of choice of field definition, a particular field definition is made in a systematic way to allow an explicit construction of effective string theories with manifest exact conformal symmetry. The impossibility of a manifestly invariant description of the Polchinski-Strominger Lagrangian is demonstrated and its meaning is explained.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0709.1765,
  title  = {Covariant Calculus for Effective String Theories},
  author = {N. D. Hari Dass and Peter Matlock},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.1765},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:16:35.600Z