String Field Theory: A Review

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sen, Ashoke, Zwiebach, Barton
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Sen, Ashoke
Zwiebach, Barton
author_facet Sen, Ashoke
Zwiebach, Barton
contents As of today there exist consistent, gauge-invariant string field theories describing all string theories: bosonic open and closed strings, open superstrings, heterotic strings and type II strings. The construction of these theories require algebraic ingredients, such as $A_\infty$ and $L_\infty$ homotopy algebras, geometric ingredients, relevant to the building of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces and the distribution of picture changing operators, and field-theoretic ingredients, involving two-dimensional CFT's and BCFT's and Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization. Applications of string field theory include the description of non-perturbative phenomena such as tachyon condensation and classical solutions, and the resolution of a number of ambiguities that bedevil the world-sheet formulation of perturbative string theory. It also allows, given a proper definition of contours of integration for momenta, for a proof of unitarity and a clear understanding of the ultraviolet finiteness of the theory. In this article we review these developments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_19421
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle String Field Theory: A Review
Sen, Ashoke
Zwiebach, Barton
High Energy Physics - Theory
As of today there exist consistent, gauge-invariant string field theories describing all string theories: bosonic open and closed strings, open superstrings, heterotic strings and type II strings. The construction of these theories require algebraic ingredients, such as $A_\infty$ and $L_\infty$ homotopy algebras, geometric ingredients, relevant to the building of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces and the distribution of picture changing operators, and field-theoretic ingredients, involving two-dimensional CFT's and BCFT's and Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization. Applications of string field theory include the description of non-perturbative phenomena such as tachyon condensation and classical solutions, and the resolution of a number of ambiguities that bedevil the world-sheet formulation of perturbative string theory. It also allows, given a proper definition of contours of integration for momenta, for a proof of unitarity and a clear understanding of the ultraviolet finiteness of the theory. In this article we review these developments.
title String Field Theory: A Review
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19421