2019/07/17 by Bruno Balthazar, Victor A. Rodriguez, Balthazar, Bruno +3 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1907.07688
openalex publication_date 2019/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the effect of ZZ instantons in c = 1 string theory, and demonstrate that they give rise to non-perturbative corrections to scattering amplitudes that do not saturate unitarity within the closed string sector. Beyond the leading non-perturbative order, logarithmic divergences are canceled between worldsheet diagrams of different topologies, due to the Fischler-Susskind-Polchinski mechanism. We propose that the closed string vacuum in c = 1 string theory is non-perturbatively dual to a state of the matrix quantum mechanics in which all scattering states up to a given energy with no incoming flux from the "other side" of the potential are occupied by free fermions. Under such a proposal, we find detailed agreement of non-perturbative corrections to closed string amplitudes in the worldsheet description and in the dual matrix model.