String and brane models with spontaneously or dynamically induced tension

Abstract

We study in some detail the properties of a previously proposed new class of string and brane models whose world-sheet (world-volume) actions are built with a modified reparametrization-invariant measure of integration and which do not contain any ad hoc dimensionful parameters. The ratio of the new and the standard Riemannian integration measure densities plays the role of a dynamically generated string or brane tension. The latter is identified as (the magnitude of) an effective (non-Abelian) electric field strength on the world-sheet or world-volume obeying the standard Gauss-law constraint. As a result a simple classical mechanism for confinement via modified-measure ``color'' strings is proposed where the colorlessness of the ``hadrons'' is an automatic consequence of the new string dynamics.