Nonrelativistic string theory and T-duality

By Eric Bergshoeff, Joaquim Gomis, Ziqi Yan. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2018

168 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A bstractNonrelativistic string theory in flat spacetime is described by a two-dimensional quantum field theory with a nonrelativistic global symmetry acting on the worldsheet fields. Nonrelativistic string theory is unitary, ultraviolet complete and has a string spectrum and spacetime S-matrix enjoying nonrelativistic symmetry. The worldsheet theory of nonrelativistic string theory is coupled to a curved spacetime background and to a Kalb-Ramond two-form and dilaton field. The appropriate spacetime geometry for nonrelativistic string theory is dubbed string Newton-Cartan geometry, which is distinct from Riemannian geometry. This defines the sigma model of nonrelativistic string theory describing strings propagating and interacting in curved background fields. We also implement T-duality transformations in the path integral of this sigma model and uncover the spacetime interpretation of T-duality. We show that T-duality along the longitudinal direction of the string Newton-Cartan geometry describes relativistic string theory on a Lorentzian geometry with a compact lightlike isometry, which is otherwise only defined by a subtle infinite boost limit. This relation provides a first principles definition of string theory in the discrete light cone quantization (DLCQ) in an arbitrary background, a quantization that appears in nonperturbative approaches to quantum field theory and string/M-theory, such as in Matrix theory. T-duality along a transverse direction of the string Newton-Cartan geometry equates nonrelativistic string theory in two distinct, T-dual backgrounds.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5a76b680a101360e2e0c5a7b197cb6c59d02ceab

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. J. Hartong
2. N. Obers
3. Ziqi Yan
4. Eric Bergshoeff
5. Jan Rosseel
6. T. Harmark
7. Lorenzo Menculini
8. Joaquim Gomis

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. J. Hartong
2. N. Obers
3. Ziqi Yan
4. Eric Bergshoeff
5. Jan Rosseel
6. T. Harmark
7. Lorenzo Menculini
8. Joaquim Gomis

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

1. J. Hartong
2. N. Obers
3. Ziqi Yan
4. Eric Bergshoeff
5. Jan Rosseel
6. Joaquim Gomis
7. Lorenzo Menculini
8. T. Harmark

Citations in the corpus

• Strings with non-relativistic conformal symmetry and limits of the AdS/CFT correspondence (2018, background): “Interestingly, the non-relativistic string theory obtained in [25, 26] from consistent low energy limits of relativistic string theory was recently shown [32] to be related to strings that couple to the so-called string NC geometry introduced in Ref.”
• String theory and string Newton–Cartan geometry (2019, background): “ the quantum Weyl invariance of vertex operators in nonrelativistic string theory has been studied and where the same set of equations of motion has been derived in an intrinsic manner.5 Secondly, in [10], it was proven that T-duality along a longitudinal spatial isometry in string Newton-Cartan geo”