Evaluation of the one loop string path integral (Q1084719)

The author evaluates the one loop amplitude for the closed bosonic string using Polyakov's path integral prescription [\textit{A. M. Polyakov}, Phys. Lett. B 103, 207-210 (1981)] in the critical dimension \(d=26\). The volumes of the groups of world sheet coordinate transformations and Weyl rescalings of the world sheet metric are divided out of the integration, leaving only an integration over the modular parameter of the torus. An appropriate thermodynamic limit reproduces the partition function for a gas of free strings. The one loop cosmological constant of the string turns out to be ultraviolet finite, although this is not true for the individual particle states. Finally the one loop amplitude for the scattering of M tachyons is computed and shown to coincide with the result obtained previously by operator methods [\textit{J. A. Shapiro}, Phys. Rev. D 5, 1945 (1972)].