Modular invariance for interacting bosonic strings at finite temperature (Q1112479)

The theory of interacting closed bosonic strings in \({\mathbb{R}}^{26}\) is of importance in the cosmology of the early universe. For non-interacting strings it has been shown that there exists a limiting temperature, the Hagedorn temperature, at which free energy diverges, indicating that the results of string cosmology would be entirely different from those of the Big Bang. The authors attempt to study interacting closed bosonic strings using the path integral formalism of Polyakov and Polchinski [see \textit{J. Polchinski}, Commun. Math. Phys. 104, 37-47 (1986; Zbl 0606.58014)]. The crucial invariance is the modular invariance of all physical quantities. \textit{G. Moore}'s [Modular forms and two-loop string physics. Harvard preprint (1986)] result on the characterization of an embedding of a compact Riemann surface \(M_ g\), of genus g, in \(R^{25}\times S^ 1\), where time is assumed periodic by just one winding number, is used. The rest of the analysis consists of a loop expansion for the sum over g and attaching handles to account for the interactions.