Is the Polyakov path integral prescription too restrictive?

1993/06/18 by Samir D. Mathur, Mathur, Samir D. · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #gr-qc #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9306090

37 pages, harvmac

arxiv created 1993/06/18 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

In the first quantised description of strings, we integrate over target space co-ordinates X^μ and world sheet metrics g_αβ. Such path integrals give scattering amplitudes between the `in' and `out' vacuua for a time-dependent target space geometry. For a complete description of `particle creation' and the corresponding backreaction, we need instead the causal amplitudes obtained from an `initial value formulation'. We argue, using the analogy of a scalar particle in curved space, that in the first quantised path integral one should integrate over X^μ and world sheet \it zweibiens. This extended formalism can be made to yield causal amplitudes; it also naturally allows incorporation of density matrices in a covariant manner. (This paper is an expanded version of hep-th 9301044)

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