English

Twistor Origin of the Superstring

High Energy Physics - Theory 2015-03-16 v2

Abstract

After introducing a d=10 pure spinor λα\lambda^\alpha, the Virasoro constraint xmxm=0\partial x^m \partial x_m =0 can be replaced by the twistor-like constraint xm(γmλ)α=0\partial x^m (\gamma_m \lambda)_\alpha=0. Quantizing this twistor-like constraint leads to the pure spinor formalism for the superstring where the fermionic superspace variables θα\theta^\alpha and their conjugate momenta come from the ghosts and antighosts of the twistor-like constraint.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.2510,
  title  = {Twistor Origin of the Superstring},
  author = {Nathan Berkovits},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.2510},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Fixed typos and added references

R2 v1 2026-06-22T05:51:48.775Z