We discuss relations between two different representations of hypothetical holomorphic NSR measures, based on two different ways of constructing the semi-modular forms of weight 8. One of these ways is to build forms from the ordinary Riemann theta constants and another -- from the lattice theta constants. We discuss unexpectedly elegant relations between lattice theta constants, corresponding to 16-dimensional self-dual lattices, and Riemann theta constants and present explicit formulae expressing the former ones through the latter. Starting from genus 5 the modular-form approach to construction of NSR measures runs into serious problems and there is a risk that it fails completely already at genus 6.
Review of remarkable progress in evaluating of NSR superstring measures, originated by E.D'Hoker and D.Phong. These recent results are presented in the old-fashioned form, which allows to highlight the options that have been overlooked in original considerations in late 1980's.
We present all NSR superstring and super-D-string actions invariant under a set of prescribed gauge transformations, and characterize completely their global symmetries. In particular we obtain locally supersymmetric Born-Infeld actions on general backgrounds in a formulation with extra target space dimensions. The nontrivial global symmetries of the superstring actions correspond to isometries of the background, whereas super-D-string actions can have additional symmetries acting nontrivially also on the coordinates of the extra dimensions.
The main goal of this paper is the manifestly covariant derivation of the classical relation between the gauge-fixed Grassmann variables of the NSR string and the Type II GS superstring. To this end we analyze the superembedding equation for the Type II superstring to derive the relation between the original variables of the NSR string and the Type II GS superstring and, further, by means of Lorentz harmonic variables we fix $κ-$symmetry of the GS superstring in the manifestly Lorentz covariant way.
By considering the superembedding equation for the Type II superstring we derive the classical relation between the NSR string and the Type II GS superstring Grassmannian variables. The connection between the actions of these two models is also established. Then introducing the proper twistor-like Lorentz harmonic variables we fix $κ-$symmetry of the GS formulation in the manifestly SO(1,9) Lorentz covariant manner and establish the relation between the gauge-fixed variables of the NSR and the Type II GS models.
We perform the derivation of the two-point correlation function in N=4 D=4 super Yang-Mills theory from superstring theory by computing the dilaton scattering amplitude in the NSR formulation of superstring theory on $AdS_5\times{S^5}$
We formulate target space duality symmetry of NSR superstring from the perspectives of worldsheet. The worldsheet action is presented in the superspace formalism in the presence of massless backgrounds. We start from a ${\hat D}$-dimensional target space worldsheet action and compactify the theory on a d-dimensional torus, $T^d$. It is assumed that the backgrounds are independent of compact (super)coordinates. We adopt the formalism of our earlier work to introduce dual supercoordinates along compact directions and introduce the corresponding dual backgrounds. It is demonstrated that combined …
Currently there are two proposed ansatze for NSR superstring measures: the Grushevsky ansatz and the OPSMY ansatz, which for genera g<=4 are known to coincide. However, neither the Grushevsky nor the OPSMY ansatz leads to a vanishing two point function in genus four, which can be constructed from the genus five expressions for the respective ansatze. This is inconsistent with the known properties of superstring amplitudes. In the present paper we show that the Grushevsky and OPSMY ansatze do not coincide in genus five. Then, by combining these ansatze, we propose a new ansatz for genus five, w…
We discuss the NSR formulation of the superstring action on AdS_5 X S^5 proposed recently by Kallosh and Tseytlin in the Green-Schwarz formalism.We show that the stress-energy tensor corresponding to the NSR action for AdS superstring contains the branelike terms, corresponding to exotic massless vertex operators (refered to as the branelike vertices). The corresponding sigma-model action has the manifest SO(1,3) X SO(6) invariance of superstring theory on AdS_5 X S^5. We argue that adding the branelike terms is equivalent to curving the space-time to obtain the AdS_5 X S^5 background. We comm…
We explore the geometry of the superconformal moduli of the NSR superstring theory in order to construct the consistent sigma-model for the NSR strings, free of picture-changing ambiguities. The sigma-model generating functional is constructed by the integration over the bosonic and anticommuting moduli, corresponding to insertions of the vertex operators in scattering amplitudes. In particular, the integration over the bosonic moduli results in the appearance of picture-changing operators for the b-c system. Important example of the b-c pictures involves the unintegrated and integrated forms …
We first derive all world-sheet action functionals for NSR superstring models with (1,1) supersymmetry and any number of abelian gauge fields, for gauge transformations of the standard form. Then we prove for these models that the BRST cohomology groups $H^g(s)$, $g<4$ (with the antifields taken into account) are isomorphic to those of the corresponding bosonic string models, whose cohomology is fully known. This implies that the nontrivial global symmetries, Noether currents, background charges, consistent deformations and candidate gauge anomalies of an NSR (1,1) superstring model are in one…
Feynman amplitudes of light-cone gauge superstring field theory are ill-defined because of various divergences. In a previous paper, one of the authors showed that taking the worldsheet theory to be the one in a linear dilaton background $Φ=-iQX^{1}$ with Feynman $i\varepsilon$ $(\varepsilon>0)$ and $Q^{2}>10$ yields finite amplitudes. In this paper, we apply this worldsheet theory to dimensional regularization of the light-cone gauge NSR superstring field theory. We concentrate on the amplitudes for even spin structure with external lines in the (NS,NS) sector. We show that the multiloop ampl…
We explore geometrical properties of fermionic vertex operators for a NSR superstring in order to establish connection between worldsheet and target space supersymmetries. The mechanism of picture-changing is obtained as a result of imposing certain constraints on a world-sheet gauge group of the NSR theory. It is found that picture-changing operators of various integer ghost numbers form a polynomial ring. By using properties of the picture-changing formalism we establish connection between the NSR and GS superstring theories. We explore the properties of the $κ$-symmetry in the NSR formalism…
We show that the renormalization group flows of the massless superstring modes in the presence of fluctuating D-branes satisfy the equations of fluid dynamics.In particular, we show that the D-brane's U(1) field is related to the velocity function in the Navier-Stokes equation while the dilaton plays the role of the passive scalar advected by the turbulent flow. This leads us to suggest a possible isomorphism between the off-shell superstring theory in the presence of fluctuating branes and the fluid mechanical degrees of freedom.
An action for the ten-dimensional Green-Schwarz superstring with N=2 worldsheet superconformal invariance has recently been used to calculate superstring scattering amplitudes and prove their finiteness. In this paper, it is shown that the N=2 stress-energy tensor for this Green-Schwarz action can be constructed out of the stress-energy tensor and ghosts of the Neveu- Schwarz-Ramond action by the standard twisting procedure. In other words, a field redefinition is found from the GS matter fields into the NSR matter and ghost fields which transforms the matter part of the two fermionic GS super…
We discuss the BSRT quantization of 2D $N=1$ supergravity coupled to superconformal matter with $\hat{c} \leq 1$ in the conformal gauge. The physical states are computed as BRST cohomology. In particular, we consider the ring structure and associated symmetry algebra for the 2D superstring ($\hat{c} = 1$).
We demonstrate (under a modest assumption) that the sums over spin-structures of the simplest combinations of fermionic correlators (Szego kernels) and DHP/CDG/Grushevsky NSR measures vanish at least on the hyperelliptic loci in the moduli space of Riemann surfaces -- despite the violation of the theta_e^4 hypothesis at g>2. This provides an additional important support to validity of these measures and is also a step towards a proof of the non-renormalization theorems in the NSR approach.
Brane-like states are defined by physical vertex operators in NSR superstring theory, existing at nonzero pictures only. These states exist both in open and closed string theories, in the NS and NS-NS sectors respectively. In this paper we present a detailed analysis of their BRST properties, giving a proof that these vertex operators are physical, i.e. BRST invariant and BRST non-trivial.
We prove the discrete triality invariance of the N=2 NSR superstring moving in a D=2+2 target space. We find that triality holds also in the Siegel-Berkovits formulation of the selfdual superstring. A supersymmetric generalization of Cayley's hyperdeterminant, based on a quartic invariant of the SL(2|1)^3 superalgebra, is presented.
We discuss several closely related concepts in the NSR formulation of superstring theory. We demonstrated that recently proposed NSR model for superstrings on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ is described by the world-sheet logarithmic conformal field theory (LCFT). The origin of LCFT on a world-sheet is closely connected to the matter-ghost mixing in the structure of a brane-like vortex operators. We suggest a dynamical origin of M theory as a string theory with an extra dimension given by bosonised superconformal ghosts.
We present a perturbative study of Ramond-Ramond backgrounds in the NSR formalism. We show how to perform sigma-model computations and discuss in detail the structure of the BRST charge and picture-changing operators. Contact terms play a vital role in the analysis. We also give evidence for a two loop non-renormalization theorem for the background beta functions.
The Green-Schwarz superstring action in a general type IIA or IIB supergravity background is derived up to fourth order in the Grassmann-odd coordinates theta. This is done by solving the superspace Bianchi identities order by order in theta, to quadratic order for all superfields and to quartic order for the supervielbeins. For a large class of backgrounds it is possible to fix the kappa symmetry in such a way that the action actually terminates at the quartic order in theta.
We find the general expression for the open superstring partition function on the annulus in a constant abelian gauge field background and at finite temperature. We use the approach based on Green-Schwarz string path integral in the light-cone gauge and compare it with NSR approach. We discuss the super Yang-Mills theory limit and mention some D-brane applications.
In this paper we study the expressions of the superstring chiral measures for $g\leq 5$. We obtain certain new expressions which are functions of higher powers of theta constants. For $g=3$ we show that the measures can be written in terms of fourth power of theta constants and for $g=4$ in terms of squares of theta constants. In both cases the forms $Ξ_8^{(g)}[0^{(g)}]$ appearing in the expression of the measures are defined on the whole Siegel upper half space. Instead, for $g=5$ we find a form $Ξ_8^{(5)}[0^{(5)}]$ which is a polynomial in the classical theta constants, well defined on the S…
We construct a new cosmological model considering the superstring-inspired E_6 unification in the 4-dimensional space at the early stage of the Universe. We develop a concept of parallel existence in Nature of the ordinary and shadow worlds with different cosmological evolutions.
The evolution of a closed NSR string is considered in the background of constant graviton and antisymmetric fields. The $σ$-model action is written in a manifestly supersymmetric form in terms of superfields. The first order formalism adopted for the closed bosonic string is generalised to implement duality transformations and the constant dual backgrounds are obtained for the dual theory. We recover the $G \rightarrow G^{-1}$ duality for the case when antisymmetric tensor field is set to zero. Next, the case when the backgrounds depend on one superfield, is also analysed. This scenario is sim…
The slice-independent gauge-fixed superstring chiral measure in genus 2 derived in the earlier papers of this series for each spin structure is evaluated explicitly in terms of theta-constants. The slice-independence allows an arbitrary choice of superghost insertion points q_1, q_2 in the explicit evaluation, and the most effective one turns out to be the split gauge defined by S_δ(q_1,q_2)=0. This results in expressions involving bilinear theta-constants M. The final formula in terms of only theta-constants follows from new identities between M and theta-constants which may be interesting in…
We show that the super D-string action is exactly equivalent to the IIB Green-Schwarz superstring action with some "theta term" in terms of the path integral. Since the "theta term" imposes the Gauss law constraint on the physical state but contributes to neither the mass operator nor the constraints associated with the kappa symmetry and the reparametrization, this exact equivalence implies that the impossibility to disentangle the first and second class fermionic constraints covariantly in the super D-string action is generally inherited from the IIB Green-Schwarz superstring action except s…
We give a hyperelliptic formulation of the Ansatz of D'Hoker and Phong. We give an explicit family of binary invariants, one for each genus, that satisfies this hyperelliptic Ansatz. We also prove that this is the unique family of weight eight binary forms over the theta group on the hyperelliptic locus that satisfies this Ansatz. Futhermore, we prove that this solution may also be obtained by applying Thomae's map to multivalued Siegel modular forms of Grushevsky and making certain choices of roots.
Precise factorization constraints are formulated for the three-loop superstring chiral measure, in the separating degeneration limit. Several natural Ansätze in terms of polynomials in theta constants for the density of the measure are examined. None of these Ansätze turns out to satisfy the dual criteria of modular covariance of weight 6, and of tending to the desired degeneration limit. However, an Ansatz is found which does satisfy these criteria for the square of the density of the measure, raising the possibility that it is not the density of the measure, but its square which is a polynom…
In this paper we show that the two-point function for the three-loop chiral superstring measure ansatz proposed by Cacciatori, Dalla Piazza, and van Geemen vanishes. Our proof uses the reformulation of ansatz in terms of even cosets, theta functions, and specifically the theory of the $Γ_{00}$ linear system on Jacobians introduced by van Geemen and van der Geer. At the two-loop level, where the amplitudes were computed by D'Hoker and Phong, we give a new proof of the vanishing of the two-point function (which was proven by them). We also discuss the possible approaches to proving the vanishing…
Theta identities on genus g Riemann surfaces which decompose simple products of fermion correlation functions with a constraint on their variables are considered. This type of theta identities is, in a sense, dual to Fay s formula, by which it is possible to sum over spin structures of certain part of superstring amplitudes in NSR formalism without using Fay s formula nor Riemann s theta formula in much simpler, more transparent way. Also, such identities will help to cast correlation functions among arbitrary numbers of Kac-Moody currents in a closed form. As for genus 1, the identities are r…
We have developed a concept of parallel existence of the ordinary (O) and mirror (M), or shadow (Sh) worlds. In the first part of the paper we consider a mirror world with broken mirror parity and the breaking $E_6\to SU(3)^3$ in both worlds. We show that in this case the evolutions of coupling constants in the O- and M-worlds are not identical, having different parameters for similar evolutions. $E_6$ unification, inspired by superstring theory, restores the broken mirror parity at the scale $\sim 10^{18}$ GeV. With the aim to explain the tiny cosmological constant, in the second part we cons…
Recently, various possible expressions for the vacuum-to-vacuum superstring amplitudes has been proposed at genus $g=3,4,5$. To compare the different proposals, here we will present a careful analysis of the comparison between the two main technical tools adopted to realize the proposals: the classical theta constants and the lattice theta series. We compute the relevant Fourier coefficients in order to relate the two spaces. We will prove the equivalence up to genus 4. In genus five we will show that the solutions are equivalent modulo the Schottky form and coincide if we impose the vanishing…
We reanalyse the computation of the cosmological constant $Λ$ at two loops in recently proposed Superstring models without massless gravitini, both in the theta-function based formalism and by a detailed computation in the more explicit hyperelliptic description of the underlying genus two Riemann surface. $Λ$ is expressed as the integral over the surface moduli of an amplitude which is zero if susy is not completely broken, but we find it to be nonvanishing in the susy breaking models which can be given an explicitly workable fermionic formulation. Thus unfortunately the issue of getting real…
We study a proposal of D'Hoker and Phong for the chiral superstring measure for genus three. A minor modification of the constraints they impose on certain Siegel modular forms leads to a unique solution. We reduce the problem of finding these modular forms, which depend on an even spin structure, to finding a modular form of weight 8 on a certain subgroup of the modular group. An explicit formula for this form, as a polynomial in the even theta constants, is given. We checked that our result is consistent with the vanishing of the cosmological constant. We also verified a conjecture of D'Hoke…
In these lectures, recent progress on multiloop superstring perturbation theory is reviewed. A construction from first principles is given for an unambiguous and slice-independent two-loop superstring measure on moduli space for even spin structure. A consistent choice of moduli, invariant under local worldsheet supersymmetry is made in terms of the super-period matrix. A variety of subtle new contributions arising from a careful gauge fixing procedure are taken into account. The superstring measure is computed explicitly in terms of genus two theta-functions and reveals the importance of a ne…
