Mass Renormalization in String Theory: Special States

2014 
String theory gives a well defined procedure for computing the S-matrix of BPS or a class of massless states, but similar calculation for general massive states is plagued with difficulties due to mass renormalization effect. In this paper we describe a procedure for computing the renormalized masses and S-matrix elements in bosonic string theory for a special class of massive states which do not mix with unphysical states under renormalization. Even though this requires working with off-shell amplitudes which are ambiguous, we show that the renormalized masses and S-matrix elements are free from these ambiguities. We also argue that the masses and S-matrix elements for general external states can be found by examining the locations of the poles and the residues of the S-matrix of special states. Finally we discuss generalizations to heterotic and superstring theories.
    • Correction
    • Source
    • Cite
    • Save
    • Machine Reading By IdeaReader
    42
    References
    0
    Citations
    NaN
    KQI
    []