English

Restoring Reality for the Self-Dual N=2 String

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-10-30 v1

Abstract

It is known that the critical N=(2,2) string describes 2+2 dimensional self-dual gravity in a non-covariant form, since it requires the choice of a complex structure in the target, which leaves only U(1,1) Lorentz symmetry. We briefly review picture-changing and spectral flow and show that the world-sheet Maxwell instantons individually break the Lorentz group further to SU(1,1). However, their contributions conspire to restore full SO(2,2) global symmetry if dilaton and axion fields are assembled in a null anti-self-dual two-form, denying them the status of Lorentz scalars. We present the fully SO(2,2) invariant tree-level three-point amplitude and the corresponding extension of the Plebanski action for self-dual gravity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9608196,
  title  = {Restoring Reality for the Self-Dual N=2 String},
  author = {Jan Bischoff and Olaf Lechtenfeld},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9608196},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

13 pages + 1 figure, 44 kb, plain LaTeX

R2 v1 2026-07-22T16:01:14.960Z