Pure Spinor Space Research Articles

Canonical Supermultiplets and Their Koszul Duals

The pure spinor superfield formalism reveals that, in any dimension and with any amount of supersymmetry, one particular supermultiplet is distinguished from all others. This “canonical supermultiplet” is equipped with an additional structure that is not apparent in any component-field formalism: a (homotopy) commutative algebra structure on the space of fields. The structure is physically relevant in several ways; it is responsible for the interactions in ten-dimensional super Yang–Mills theory, as well as crucial to any first-quantised interpretation. We study the L∞\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$L_\\infty $$\\end{document} algebra structure that is Koszul dual to this commutative algebra, both in general and in numerous examples, and prove that it is equivalent to the subalgebra of the Koszul dual to functions on the space of generalised pure spinors in internal degree greater than or equal to three. In many examples, the latter is the positive part of a Borcherds–Kac–Moody superalgebra. Using this result, we can interpret the canonical multiplet as the homotopy fiber of the map from generalised pure spinor space to its derived replacement. This generalises and extends work of Movshev–Schwarz and Gálvez–Gorbounov–Shaikh–Tonks in the same spirit. We also comment on some issues with physical interpretations of the canonical multiplet, which are illustrated by an example related to the complex Cayley plane, and on possible extensions of our construction, which appear relevant in an example with symmetry type G2×A1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$G_2 \ imes A_1$$\\end{document}.

Conformal field theories in six-dimensional twistor space

This article gives a study of the higher-dimensional Penrose transform between conformally invariant massless fields on space–time and cohomology classes on twistor space, where twistor space is defined to be the space of projective pure spinors of the conformal group. We focus on the six-dimensional case in which twistor space is the 6-quadric Q in CP7 with a view to applications to the self-dual (0,2)-theory. We show how spinor-helicity momentum eigenstates have canonically defined distributional representatives on twistor space (a story that we extend to arbitrary dimension). These yield an elementary proof of the surjectivity of the Penrose transform. We give a direct construction of the twistor transform between the two different representations of massless fields on twistor space (H2 and H3) in which the H3s arise as obstructions to extending the H2s off Q into CP7.We also develop the theory of Sparling’s ‘Ξ-transform’, the analogous totally real split signature story based now on real integral geometry where cohomology no longer plays a role. We extend Sparling’s Ξ-transform to all helicities and homogeneities on twistor space and show that it maps kernels and cokernels of conformally invariant powers of the ultrahyperbolic wave operator on twistor space to conformally invariant massless fields on space–time. This is proved by developing the six-dimensional analogue of the half-Fourier transform between functions on twistor space and momentum space. We give a treatment of the elementary conformally invariant Φ3 amplitude on twistor space and finish with a discussion of conformal field theories in twistor space.

The geometry of pure spinor space

We investigate the complex geometry of D=10 pure spinor space. The K\"ahler structure and the corresponding metric giving rise to the desired Calabi-Yau property are determined, and an explicit covariant expression for the Laplacian is given. The metric is not that of a cone obtained by embedding pure spinor space in a flat space of unconstrained spinors. Some directions for future studies, concerning regularisation and generalisation to eleven dimensions, are briefly discussed.

On projections to the pure spinor space

A family of covariant non-linear projections from the space of SO(10) Weyl spinors onto the space of pure SO(10) Weyl spinors is presented. The Jacobian matrices of these projections are related to a linear projector which was previously discussed in pure spinor string literature and which maps the antighost to its gauge invariant part. Only one representative of the family leads to a Hermitian Jacobian matrix and can itself be derived from a scalar potential. Comments on the SO(1,9) case are given as well as on the non-covariant version of the projection map. The insight is applied to the ghost action of pure spinor string theory, where the constraints on the fields can be removed using the projection, while introducing new gauge symmetries. This opens the possibility of choosing different gauges which might help to clarify the origin of the pure spinor ghosts. Also the measure of the pure spinor space is discussed from the projection point of view. The appendix contains the discussion of a toy model which served as a guideline for the pure spinor case.

A new proposal for the picture changing operators in the minimal pure spinor formalism

Using a new proposal for the "picture lowering" operators, we compute the tree level scattering amplitude in the minimal pure spinor formalism by performing the integration over the pure spinor space as a multidimensional Cauchy-type integral. The amplitude will be written in terms of the projective pure spinor variables, which turns out to be useful to relate rigorously the minimal and non-minimal versions of the pure spinor formalism. The natural language for relating these formalisms is the Cech-Dolbeault isomorphism. Moreover, the Dolbeault cocycle corresponding to the tree-level scattering amplitude must be evaluated in SO(10)/SU(5) instead of the whole pure spinor space, which means that the origin is removed from this space. Also, the Cech-Dolbeault language plays a key role for proving the invariance of the scattering amplitude under BRST, Lorentz and supersymmetry transformations, as well as the decoupling of unphysical states. We also relate the Green's function for the massless scalar field in ten dimensions to the tree-level scattering amplitude and comment about the scattering amplitude at higher orders. In contrast with the traditional picture lowering operators, with our new proposal the tree level scattering amplitude is independent of the constant spinors introduced to define them and the BRST exact terms decouple without integrating over these constant spinors.

Pure spinor integration from the collating formula

We use the technique developed by Becchi and Imbimbo to construct a well-defined BRST-invariant path integral formulation of pure spinor amplitudes. The space of pure spinors can be viewed from the algebraic geometry point of view as a collection of open sets where the constraints can be solved and a set of free and independent variables can be defined. On the intersections of those open sets, the functional measure jumps and one has to add boundary terms to construct a well-defined path integral. The result is the definition of the pure spinor integration measure constructed in terms of differential forms on each single patch.

Operator Space of Pure Spinors

Over the last decade, a new first quantization scheme for superstring called “pure spinor formalism” has been developed following the pioneering work of Berkovits.1) Compared to the conventional Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz (RNS) and Green-Schwarz (GS) formalisms, the new formalism has an advantage of being super-Poincare covariant at the quantum level. It has been successfully used to covariantly compute multi-loop higher-point scattering amplitudes in a flat background, and to construct string models in presence of Ramond-Ramond (RR) fluxes such as the RR supported AdS5 × S5 background. By now, it appears fair to claim that the formalism has proved its utility as a consistent first quantization scheme. Given that the pure spinor formalism gives a correct first quantized description of superstring, it is natural to seek for its application to second quantization, or superstring field theory (SSFT). The purpose of this talk was to describe the current state of the art in this direction. Let us begin with a short comparison of the pure spinor formalism with conventional formalisms. The following table summarises some features of commonly used formalisms.∗) RNS superstring is defined on a superworldsheet and powerful methods of super-

Vertex Algebroids over Veronese Rings

We find a canonical quantization of Courant algebroids over Veronese rings. Part of our approach allows a semi-infinite cohomology interpretation, and the latter can be used to define sheaves of chiral differential operators on some homogeneous spaces including the space of pure spinors punctured at a point.

Pure spinor partition function and the massive superstring spectrum

We explicitly compute up to the fifth mass-level the partition function of ten-dimensional pure spinor worldsheet variables including the spin dependence. After adding the contribution from the (x^{\mu}, \theta^{\alpha}, p_{\alpha}) matter variables, we reproduce the massive superstring spectrum. Even though pure spinor variables are bosonic, the pure spinor partition function contains fermionic states which first appear at the second mass-level. These fermionic states come from functions which are not globally defined in pure spinor space, and are related to the b ghost in the pure spinor formalism. This result clarifies the proper definition of the Hilbert space for pure spinor variables.

Non-critical pure spinor superstrings

We construct non-critical pure spinor superstrings in two, four and six dimensions. We find explicitly the map between the RNS variables and the pure spinor ones in the linear dilaton background. The RNS variables map onto a patch of the pure spinor space and the holomorphic top form on the pure spinor space is an essential ingredient of the mapping. A basic feature of the map is the requirement of doubling the superspace, which we analyze in detail. We study the structure of the non-critical pure spinor space, which is different from the ten-dimensional one, and its quantum anomalies. We compute the pure spinor lowest lying BRST cohomology and find an agreement with the RNS spectra. The analysis is generalized to curved backgrounds and we construct as an example the non-critical pure spinor type IIA superstring on AdS_4 with RR 4-form flux.

The Character of Pure Spinors

The character of holomorphic functions on the space of pure spinors in 10, 11 and 12 dimensions is calculated. From this character formula, we derive in a manifestly covariant way various central charges which appear in the pure spinor formalism for the superstring. We also derive in a simple way the zero momentum cohomology of the pure spinor BRST operator for the D=10 and D=11 superparticle

Minimal curves in six dimensions

Classical strings and minimal surfaces in a flat spacetime correspond to pairs of 'minimal' (i.e. null) curves in its complexification. The authors show how to find null curves in dimension six by use of twistor methods. The twistor space for C6 is the space of pure spinors for C8. They review the geometry of this space and establish a correspondence between 'pure' curves in twistor space and null ruled 2-surfaces in C6. This correspondence generates an explicit parameterisation of null curves in C6, thereby generalising the Weierstrass-Eisenhart parametrisation of null curves in C3 or C4. They also describe covariant methods for finding the periodic real null curves for string theory in real 6-space of any signature.