2002/06/11 by Per Kraus, Anton Ryzhov, Anton V Ryzhov +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.66.106001
published as Phys.Rev. D66 (2002) 106001 · 29 pages, Harvmac
arxiv created 2002/06/11 · openalex publication_date 2002/11/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study some of the novel properties of conformal field theories (CFTs) with noncompact target spaces as applied to string theory. Standard CFT results get corrected by boundary terms in the target space in a way consistent with the expected spacetime physics. For instance, one-point functions of general operators on the sphere and boundary operators on the disk need not vanish; we show that they are instead equal to boundary terms in spacetime. By applying this result to vertex operators for spacetime gauge transformations with support at infinity, we derive formulas for conserved gauge charges in string theory. This approach provides a direct CFT definition of Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) energy-momentum in string theory.