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Worldsheet
In string theory, a worldsheet is a two-dimensional manifold which describes the embedding of a string in spacetime. The term was coined by Leonard Susskind as a direct generalization of the world line concept for a point particle in special and general relativity. The type of string, the geometry of the spacetime in which it propagates, and the presence of long-range background fields (such as gauge fields) are encoded in a two-dimensional conformal field theory defined on the worldsheet. For example, the bosonic string in 26 dimensions has a worldsheet conformal field theory consisting of 26 free scalar bosons. Meanwhile, a superstring worldsheet theory in 10 dimensions consists of 10 free scalar fields and their fermionic superpartners. Mathematical formulation Bosonic string We begin with the classical formulation of the bosonic string. First fix a d-dimensional flat spacetime (d-dimensional Minkowski space), M, which serves as the ambient space for the string. A w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyakov Action
In physics, the Polyakov action is an action (physics), action of the two-dimensional conformal field theory describing the worldsheet of a string in string theory. It was introduced by Stanley Deser and Bruno Zumino and independently by Lars Brink, L. Brink, Paolo Di Vecchia, P. Di Vecchia and P. S. Howe in 1976, and has become associated with Alexander Markovich Polyakov, Alexander Polyakov after he made use of it in quantizing the string in 1981. The action reads : \mathcal = \frac \int\mathrm^2\sigma\, \sqrt\,h^ g_(X) \partial_a X^\mu(\sigma) \partial_b X^\nu(\sigma), where T is the string Tension (mechanics), tension, g_ is the metric of the target manifold, h_ is the worldsheet metric, h^ its inverse, and h is the determinant of h_. The metric signature is chosen such that timelike directions are + and the spacelike directions are −. The spacelike worldsheet coordinate is called \sigma, whereas the timelike worldsheet coordinate is called \tau. This is also known as the no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bosonic String
Bosonic string theory is the original version of string theory, developed in the late 1960s and named after Satyendra Nath Bose. It is so called because it contains only bosons in the spectrum. In the 1980s, supersymmetry was discovered in the context of string theory, and a new version of string theory called superstring theory (supersymmetric string theory) became the real focus. Nevertheless, bosonic string theory remains a very useful model to understand many general features of perturbative string theory, and many theoretical difficulties of superstrings can actually already be found in the context of bosonic strings. Problems Although bosonic string theory has many attractive features, it falls short as a viable physical model in two significant areas. First, it predicts only the existence of bosons whereas many physical particles are fermions. Second, it predicts the existence of a mode of the string with imaginary mass, implying that the theory has an instability to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Theory
In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries the gravitational force. Thus, string theory is a theory of quantum gravity. String theory is a broad and varied subject that attempts to address a number of deep questions of fundamental physics. String theory has contributed a number of advances to mathematical physics, which have been applied to a variety of problems in black hole physics, early universe cosmology, nuclear physics, and conde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Line
The world line (or worldline) of an object is the path that an object traces in 4-dimensional spacetime. It is an important concept in modern physics, and particularly theoretical physics. The concept of a "world line" is distinguished from concepts such as an "orbit" or a "trajectory" (e.g., a planet's ''orbit in space'' or the ''trajectory'' of a car on a road) by the ''time'' dimension, and typically encompasses a large area of spacetime wherein perceptually straight paths are recalculated to show their ( relatively) more absolute position states—to reveal the nature of special relativity or gravitational interactions. The idea of world lines originates in physics and was pioneered by Hermann Minkowski. The term is now most often used in relativity theories (i.e., special relativity and general relativity). Usage in physics In physics, a world line of an object (approximated as a point in space, e.g., a particle or observer) is the sequence of spacetime events correspon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massless Free Scalar Bosons In Two Dimensions
Massless free scalar bosons are a family of two-dimensional conformal field theories, whose symmetry is described by an abelian affine Lie algebra. Since they are free i.e. non-interacting, free bosonic CFTs are easily solved exactly. Via the Coulomb gas formalism, they lead to exact results in interacting CFTs such as minimal models. Moreover, they play an important role in the worldsheet approach to string theory. In a free bosonic CFT, the Virasoro algebra's central charge can take any complex value. However, the value c=1 is sometimes implicitly assumed. For c=1, there exist compactified free bosonic CFTs with arbitrary values of the compactification radius. Lagrangian formulation The action of a free bosonic theory in two dimensions is a functional of the free boson \phi , : S phi= \frac \int d^2x \sqrt (g^ \partial_\mu \phi \partial _ \phi + Q R \phi )\ , where g_ is the metric of the two-dimensional space on which the theory is formulated, R is the Ricci s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minkowski Space
In mathematical physics, Minkowski space (or Minkowski spacetime) () is a combination of three-dimensional Euclidean space and time into a four-dimensional manifold where the spacetime interval between any two events is independent of the inertial frame of reference in which they are recorded. Although initially developed by mathematician Hermann Minkowski for Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, the mathematical structure of Minkowski spacetime was shown to be implied by the postulates of special relativity. Minkowski space is closely associated with Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity and is the most common mathematical structure on which special relativity is formulated. While the individual components in Euclidean space and time may differ due to length contraction and time dilation, in Minkowski spacetime, all frames of reference will agree on the total distance in spacetime between events.This makes spacetime distance an invariant. Becaus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conformal Class
In mathematics, conformal geometry is the study of the set of angle-preserving (conformal map, conformal) transformations on a space. In a real two dimensional space, conformal geometry is precisely the geometry of Riemann surfaces. In space higher than two dimensions, conformal geometry may refer either to the study of conformal mapping, conformal transformations of what are called "flat spaces" (such as Euclidean spaces or n-sphere, spheres), or to the study of conformal manifolds which are Riemannian manifold, Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with a class of metric tensor, metrics that are defined up to scale. Study of the flat structures is sometimes termed Möbius geometry, and is a type of Klein geometry. Conformal manifolds A conformal manifold is a pseudo-Riemannian manifold equipped with an equivalence class of metric tensors, in which two metrics ''g'' and ''h'' are equivalent if and only if :h = \lambda^2 g , where ''λ'' is a real-valued smooth function defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weyl Transformation
:''See also Wigner–Weyl transform, for another definition of the Weyl transform.'' In theoretical physics, the Weyl transformation, named after Hermann Weyl, is a local rescaling of the metric tensor: :g_\rightarrow e^g_ which produces another metric in the same conformal class. A theory or an expression invariant under this transformation is called conformally invariant, or is said to possess Weyl invariance or Weyl symmetry. The Weyl symmetry is an important symmetry in conformal field theory. It is, for example, a symmetry of the Polyakov action. When quantum mechanical effects break the conformal invariance of a theory, it is said to exhibit a conformal anomaly or Weyl anomaly. The ordinary Levi-Civita connection and associated spin connections are not invariant under Weyl transformations. An appropriately invariant notion is the Weyl connection, which is one way of specifying the structure of a conformal connection. Conformal weight A quantity \varphi has conformal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space-like
In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why different observers perceive differently where and when events occur. Until the 20th century, it was assumed that the three-dimensional geometry of the universe (its spatial expression in terms of coordinates, distances, and directions) was independent of one-dimensional time. The physicist Albert Einstein helped develop the idea of spacetime as part of his theory of relativity. Prior to his pioneering work, scientists had two separate theories to explain physical phenomena: Isaac Newton's laws of physics described the motion of massive objects, while James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic models explained the properties of light. However, in 1905, Einstein based a work on special relativity on two postulates: * The laws of physics are invariant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time-like
In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why different observers perceive differently where and when events occur. Until the 20th century, it was assumed that the three-dimensional geometry of the universe (its spatial expression in terms of coordinates, distances, and directions) was independent of one-dimensional time. The physicist Albert Einstein helped develop the idea of spacetime as part of his theory of relativity. Prior to his pioneering work, scientists had two separate theories to explain physical phenomena: Isaac Newton's laws of physics described the motion of massive objects, while James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic models explained the properties of light. However, in 1905, Einstein based a work on special relativity on two postulates: * The laws of physics are invariant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Induced Metric
In mathematics and theoretical physics, the induced metric is the metric tensor defined on a submanifold that is induced from the metric tensor on a manifold into which the submanifold is embedded, through the pullback. It may be determined using the following formula (using the Einstein summation convention), which is the component form of the pullback operation: :g_ = \partial_a X^\mu \partial_b X^\nu g_\ Here a, b describe the indices of coordinates \xi^a of the submanifold while the functions X^\mu(\xi^a) encode the embedding into the higher-dimensional manifold whose tangent indices are denoted \mu, \nu. Example – curve on a torus Let : \Pi\colon \mathcal \to \mathbb^3,\ \tau \mapsto \begin\beginx^1&= (a+b\cos(n\cdot \tau))\cos(m\cdot \tau)\\x^2&=(a+b\cos(n\cdot \tau))\sin(m\cdot \tau)\\x^3&=b\sin(n\cdot \tau).\end \end be a map from the domain of the curve \mathcal with parameter \tau into the Euclidean manifold \mathbb^3. Here a,b,m,n\in\mathbb are constants. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface (topology)
In the part of mathematics referred to as topology, a surface is a two-dimensional manifold. Some surfaces arise as the boundaries of three-dimensional solids; for example, the sphere is the boundary of the solid ball. Other surfaces arise as graphs of functions of two variables; see the figure at right. However, surfaces can also be defined abstractly, without reference to any ambient space. For example, the Klein bottle is a surface that cannot be embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Topological surfaces are sometimes equipped with additional information, such as a Riemannian metric or a complex structure, that connects them to other disciplines within mathematics, such as differential geometry and complex analysis. The various mathematical notions of surface can be used to model surfaces in the physical world. In general In mathematics, a surface is a geometrical shape that resembles a deformed plane. The most familiar examples arise as boundaries of solid ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
