The dilaton theorem and closed string backgrounds

DOI10.1016/0550-3213(95)00022-KMaRDI QIDQ1804183zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Oren Bergman, Barton Zwiebach

Publication date 27 April 1995

Published in Nuclear Physics B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9411047

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Quantum field theory on lattices (81T25)

Abstract: The zero-momentum ghost-dilaton is a non-primary BRST physical state present in every bosonic closed string background. It is given by the action of the BRST operator on another state $x$, but remains nontrivial in the semirelative BRST cohomology. When local coordinates arise from metrics we show that dilaton and $x$ insertions compute Riemannian curvature and geodesic curvature respectively. A proper definition of a CFT deformation induced by the dilaton requires surface integrals of the dilaton and line integrals of $x$. Surprisingly, the ghost number anomaly makes this a trivial deformation. While dilatons cannot deform conformal theories, they actually deform conformal string backgrounds, showing in a simple context that a string background is not necessarily the same as a CFT. We generalize the earlier proof of quantum background independence of string theory to show that a dilaton shift amounts to a shift of the string coupling in the field-dependent part of the quantum string action. Thus the ``dilaton theorem, familiar for on-shell string amplitudes, holds off-shell as a consequence of an exact symmetry of the string action.

Recommendations

• Who changes the string coupling?
• Vacuum vertices and the ghost-dilaton
• Oriented open-closed string theory revisited
• A proof of local background independence of classical closed string field theory

Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3901700 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3533719 (Why is no real title available?)
• Nearby CFTs in the operator formalism: The role of a connection
• Off-shell closed string amplitudes: Towards a computation of the tachyon potential

Cited in

(34)

• Oriented open-closed string theory revisited
• On the picture dependence of Ramond-Ramond cohomology
• Space-time uncertainty principle and conformal symmetry in D-particle dynamics.
• The confining string from the soft dilaton theorem
• New moduli spaces from string background independence consistency conditions
• Building string field theory around non-conformal backgrounds
• Gribov problem, contact terms and Čech-De Rham cohomology in 2D topological gravity
• Vacuum vertices and the ghost-dilaton
• Who changes the string coupling?
• The string dilaton and a least coupling principle
• Localization of effective actions in heterotic string field theory
• Closed string deformations in open string field theory. I: bosonic string.
• Aspects of compactification on a linear dilaton background
• New D1-D5-P geometries from string amplitudes
• The closed string field theory action vanishes
• The classical cosmological constant of open-closed string field theory
• Dilaton coupling revisited
• Hosotani model in closed-string theory
• Nonlocal charges for bonus Yangian symmetries of super-Yang-Mills
• A proof of local background independence of classical closed string field theory
• Is the string coupling constant invariant under \(T\)-duality?
• Open-closed string field theory in the large \(N\) limit
• The nilpotent structure of open-closed string field theory
• Closed string theory without level-matching at the free level
• Closed string vertex operators with various ghost number
• Thermal Bekenstein-Hawking entropy from the worldsheet
• A worldsheet description of flux compactifications
• Off-shell strings. I: S-matrix and action
• On the existence of heterotic-string and type-II-superstring field theory vertices
• Moving NS punctures on super spheres
• Bulk-induced D-brane deformations and the string coupling constant
• Topological recursion for hyperbolic string field theory
• Closed string tachyon condensation revisited
• Boundary terms in string field theory

This page was built for publication: The dilaton theorem and closed string backgrounds

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1804183)