String Winding Modes From Charge Non-Conservation in Compact Chern-Simons Theory

In this letter we show how string winding modes can be constructed using topological membranes. We use the fact that monopole-instantons in compact topologically massive gauge theory lead to charge non-conservation inside the membrane which, in turn, enables us to construct vertex operators with different left and right momenta. The amount of charge non-conservation inside the membrane is interpreted as giving the momentum associated with the string winding mode and is shown to match precisely the full mass spectrum of compactified string theory.