Interacting particles and strings in path and surface representations
Pío J. Arias, E. Fuenmayor, Lorenzo Leal · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields · 2004
Nonrelativistic charged particles and strings coupled with Abelian gauge fields are quantized in a geometric representation that generalizes the loop representation. We consider three models: the string in self-interaction through a Kalb-Ramond field in four dimensions, the topological interaction of two particles due to a BF term in $2+1$ dimensions, and the string-particle interaction mediated by a BF term in $3+1$ dimensions. In the first case one finds that a consistent ``surface representation'' can be built provided that the coupling constant is quantized. The geometrical setting that arises corresponds to a generalized picture of the lines of Faraday: quantum states are labeled by the shape of the string, from which emanate ``Faraday's surfaces.'' In the other models, the topological interaction can also be described by geometrical means. It is shown that the open-path (or open-surface) dependence carried by the wave functional in these models can be eliminated through a unitary transformation, except by the remaining dependence on the boundary of the path (or surface). This feature is closely related to the presence of anomalous statistics in the $2+1$ model, and to a generalized ``anyonic behavior'' of the string in the other case.