Bordered surfaces, off-shell amplitudes, sewing, and string field theory
Steven J. Carlip · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · 1989
These lectures will deal with the current status of the sewing problem. The rationale for this approach is that any nonperturbative string theory must reproduce the Polyakov path integral as a perturbation series. If our experience in ordinary field theory is a guide --- and admittedly it may not be --- the terms in such a perturbation series, like Feynman diagrams, are likely to be built up from simple ''vertices'' and ''propagators,'' which can themselves be represented as (off-shell) Polyakov amplitudes. Hence an understanding of how to put together simple components into more complicated world sheet amplitudes is likely to give us much-needed information about the structure of nonperturbative string theory. To understand sewing, we must first understand the building blocks, off-shell Polyakov amplitudes. This is the subject of my first lecture. Next, we will explore the sewing of conformal field theories at a fixed conformal structure, that is, the reconstruction of correlation functions for a fixed surface /Sigma/ from those on a pair of surfaces /Sigma//sub 1/ and /Sigma//sub 2/ obtained by cutting /Sigma/ along a closed curve. We will then look at the problem of sewing amplitudes, integrals of correlation functions over moduli space. This will necessitate an understanding of how to build the moduli space of a complicated surface from simpler moduli spaces. Finally, we will briefly examine vertices and string field theories. 48 refs., 10 figs.