2000/10/16 by Thomas Filk, T. Filk
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/17/23/304
published as Class.Quant.Grav.17:4841-4854,2000 · to appear in Class. Quantum Grav
arxiv created 2000/10/16 · openalex publication_date 2000/11/16 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We present simple models which exhibit some of the remarkable features expected to hold for the as yet unknown non-perturbative formulation of string theories. Among these are: (a) the absence of a background or embedding space for the full theory; (b) perturbative ground states (local minima of the action) having the characteristics of spaces of different dimension; (c) duality transformations between large- and small-coupling expansions; and (d) perturbative excitations of these ground states which can be interpreted as string worldsheets or p -brane worldvolumes. In this context we formulate gauge theories on arbitrary graphs and speculate concerning actions for graphs which in a continuum and/or thermodynamic limit might be related to the Einstein-Hilbert action.