Quasi-Yang-Mills structure for the open bosonic string

Abstract

Using the description of bosonic open strings by a double p-form, the ghost-auxiliary field spectrum is derived algebraically, as well as the BRS symmetry, of the free bosonic string theory. A quasi-Yang-Mills structure emerges, where lagrangians and possible anomalies are related to invariant exterior forms of higher rank. The passage from the free case to the interacting one necessitates the understanding of vortex operators defined so as to ensure some geometrical Jacobi-Bianchi identities.