BRS current and related anomalies in two-dimensional gravity and string theories

Abstract

The BRS currents in two-dimensional gravity and supergravity theories, which are related to string theory, contain anomalous terms. The origin of these anomalies can be neatly understood in a carefully defined path integral. We present the detailed calculations of these BRS and related anomalies in the holomorphic or anti-holomorphic sector separately in the conformal gauge. One-loop renormalization of the Liouville action becomes transparent in our formalation. We identify a BRS invariant BRS current (and thus nil-potent charge) and a conformally invariant ghost number current by incorporating the dynamical Weyl freedom explicitly. The formal path integral construction of various composite operators is also checked by using the operator product technique. Implications of these BRS analyses on possible non-critical string theories at d < 26 or d < 10 are briefly discussed.