Theory HEP Seminar

Small string quantisation in curved space and tubular geometry

Partha Mukhopadhyay

IMSc, Chennai

In string theory small strings are analogues of the usual particle like excitations of QFT. A first principle analysis of their quantization in an arbitrary on-shell curved background is still lacking. We study this problem in a loop space framework where non-linear sigma model is written as a single particle quantum mechanics in loop space. In a semi-classical (particle) limit the wave function localizes on the submanifold of vanishing loops and the semi-classical expansion derived from the tubular expansion of the theory around this submanifold. The goal is to compute CFT correlates, SFT etc in the form of derivative expansion. We shall discuss progress, challenges and future of this problem.