Related papers: Strings, Virasoro Sandwiches and Worldsheet Horizo…
We provide an explicit construction of classical strings that have endpoints on the horizons of the 2D Lorentzian black hole. We argue that this is a dual description of geodesics that are localized around the horizon which are the…
The quantum theory of a massless spin two particle is strongly constrained by diffeomorphism invariance, which is in turn implied by unitarity. We explicitly exhibit the space-time diffeomorphism algebra of string theory, realizing it in…
We study some properties of target space strings constructed from (2,1) heterotic strings. We argue that world-sheet complexification is a general property of the bosonic sector of such target world-sheets. We give a target space…
In previous papers we have shown how strings in a two-dimensional target space reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity, thanks to an infinite set of conserved quantum numbers, ``W-hair'', associated with topological soliton-like…
This paper puts forward a conjecture that there are no black holes in M theory. We will show that a mechanism to prevent black hole formation is needed in 4 dimensions to make string theory a viable high energy model of quantum gravity.…
We propose a covariant method of constructing entire trajectories of physical states in superstring theory in the critical dimension. It is inspired by a recently developed covariant technology of excavating bosonic string trajectories,…
We discuss properties of black holes which are pierced by special configurations of cosmic strings. For static black holes we consider radial strings in the limit when the number of strings grows to infinity while the tension of each single…
We investigate the possibility that stringy nonperturbative effects appear as holes in the world-sheet. We focus on the case of Dirichlet string theory, which we argue should be formulated differently than in previous work, and we find that…
The operator formalism of the first quantized string theory is applied to the stringy excitations in the linear dilaton background. In particular, the normal-ordered vertex operators in the old-covariant spectrum of the bosonic open string,…
We introduce a new two-dimensional string theory defined by coupling two copies of Liouville CFT with complex central charge $c=13\pm i \lambda$ on the worldsheet. This string theory defines a novel, consistent and controllable model of…
We treat spherically symmetric black holes in Gauss-Bonnet gravity by imposing boundary conditions on fluctuating metric on the horizon. Obtained effective two-dimensional theory admits Virasoro algebra near the horizon. This enables, with…
A-theory realizes U-duality symmetry by extending the string worldsheet to a higher dimensional brane worldvolume, in which the worldvolume and the spacetime belong to different representations of the exceptional group. The closure of the…
The black hole solutions to Einstein's vacuum field equations are also solutions to the equations of motion of the low energy limit of superstring theory. At the same time, string theory boasts a much broader and richer collection of black…
We discuss the physical spectrum for $W$ strings based on the algebras $B_n$, $D_n$, $E_6$, $E_7$ and $E_8$. For a simply-laced $W$ string, we find a connection with the $(h,h+1)$ unitary Virasoro minimal model, where $h$ is the dual…
We calculate the density of states with given mass and spin in string theory and obtain asymptotic formulas. We also compute the tree-level gyromagnetic couplings for arbitrary physical states in the heterotic string theory. These results…
We construct BRST operators for certain higher-spin extensions of the Virasoro algebra, in which there is a spin-$s$ gauge field on the world sheet, as well as the spin-2 gauge field corrresponding to the two-dimensional metric. We use…
We study classical closed bosonic strings probing the near-horizon region of a non-extremal black hole and show that this corresponds to understanding string theory in the Carroll regime. This is done by first performing a Carroll expansion…
The bosonic content of string theory in curved background of multidimensional structure with p-branes has a systematic geometrical description as an effective sigma-model of gravity in lower dimension (say 3+1) with additional interacting…
In the present paper we consider quantum theories obtained by quantization of classical theories with first-class constraints assuming that these constraints form a Lie algebra. We show that in this case, one can construct physical…
The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…