Related papers: On the Problems with Background Independence in St…
The determination of the string vertices of closed string field theory is shown to be a conformal field theory problem solvable by combining insights from Liouville theory, hyperbolic geometry, and conformal bootstrap. We first demonstrate…
String theory is the most promising candidate for the theory unifying all interactions including gravity. It has an extremely difficult dynamics. Therefore, it is useful to study some its simplifications. One of them is non-critical string…
From conformal field theory on the Riemann sphere, we implement its boundary version in a simply-connected domain using the Schottky double construction. We consider the statistical fields generated by background charge modification of the…
The `winding state' behavior appears in the two-loop nonplanar contribution to the partition function in thermal noncommutative field theories. We derive this feature directly from the purely open string theory analysis in the presence of…
The string tension does not have to be put in by hand, it can be dynamically generated, as in the case when we formulate string theory in the modified measure formalism, and other formulations as well. Then string tension appears, but as an…
Pair creation of strings in time-dependent backgrounds is studied from an effective field theory viewpoint, and some possible cosmological applications are discussed. Simple estimates suggest that excited strings may have played a…
We consider one of the simplest time-dependent backgrounds in M-theory, describing the shrinking away of the M-theory dimension with the other spatial dimensions static. As the M-theory dimension becomes small, the situation becomes…
It is shown that background fields of a topological character usually introduced as such in compactified string theories correspond to quantum degrees of freedom which parametrise the freedom in choosing a representation of the zero mode…
The interaction energy and force between widely separated strings is analyzed in a field theory having applications to superconducting cosmic strings, the SO(5) model of high-temperature superconductivity, and solitons in nonlinear optics.…
We discuss two dimensional string theories containing gauge fields introduced either via coupling to open strings, in which case we get a Born-Infeld type action, or via heterotic compactification. The solutions to the modified background…
We study string theory on the analytically continued $\beta$ deformed background proposed in hep-th/0509036. This non-static model provides a solvable conformal field theory which describes time-dependent twisted string dynamics. With the…
We continue work on the connection between world sheet representation of the planar phi^3 theory and string formation. The present article, like the earlier work, is based on the existence of a solitonic solution on the world sheet, and on…
String theory has not even come close to a complete formulation after half a century of intense research. On the other hand, a number of features of the theory suggest that the theory, once completed, may be a final theory. It is argued in…
We suggest that for singular rotationally invariant closed string backgrounds which need sources for their support at the origin (in particular, for special plane waves and fundamental strings) certain `trivial' \a'-corrections (which are…
We consider a class of conformal models describing closed strings in axially symmetric stationary magnetic flux tube backgrounds. These models are closed string analogs of the Landau model of a particle in a magnetic field or the model of…
We consider a closed string field theory with an arbitrary matter current as a source of the closed string field. We find that the source must satisfy a constraint equation as a consequence of the BRST invariance of the theory. We see that…
This is an invited contribution to the Special Issue of "Foundations of Physics" titled "Forty Years Of String Theory: Reflecting On the Foundations". I have been asked to assess string theory as an outsider, and to compare it with the…
We review our most recent results in formulating gauge theories in the presence of a background field on the basis of symmetry arguments only. In particular we show how one can gain full control over the dependence on the background field…
An explicitly exact superconformal description is provided to some classes of Type II string theories in non constant RR backgrounds. This is done by applying the manifest (2,2) approach of Berkovits and Maldacena to Type II strings and by…
This paper concerns what Background Independence itself is (as opposed to some particular physical theory that is background independent). The notions presented mostly arose from a layer-by-layer analysis of the facets of the Problem of…