Abstract
Classical rotating closed string are folded strings. At the folding points the scalar curvature associated with the induced metric diverges. As a consequence one cannot properly quantize the fluctuations around the classical solution since there is no complete set of normalizable eigenmodes. Furthermore in the non-critical effective string action of Polchinski and Strominger, there is a divergence associated with the folds. We overcome this obstacle by putting a massive particle at each folding point which can be used as a regulator. Using this method we compute the spectrum of quantum fluctuations around the rotating string and the intercept of the leading Regge trajectory. The results we find are that the intercepts are a = 1 and a = 2 for the open and closed string respectively, independent of the target space dimension. We argue that in generic theories with an effective string description, one can expect corrections from finite masses associated with either the endpoints of an open string or the folding points on a closed string. We compute explicitly the corrections in the presence of these masses.
Highlights
The quantization of strings in non-critical dimensions and in particular in four spacetime dimensions is an utmost important question for the description of nature in terms of a string theory
We argue that in generic theories with an effective string description, one can expect corrections from finite masses associated with either the endpoints of an open string or the folding points on a closed string
If we use the massive particle at every folding point as a regulator and take it to zero, we show that the intercept, including the contribution from the PS term, for rotating open strings takes the form
Summary
The quantization of strings in non-critical dimensions and in particular in four spacetime dimensions is an utmost important question for the description of nature in terms of a string theory. If we use the massive particle at every folding point as a regulator and take it to zero, we show that the intercept, including the contribution from the PS term, for rotating open strings takes the form. For both open and closed strings, the result in the massless limit is that the intercept is independent of the dimension, a result which generalizes what was found in [1] to the closed string.
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