ON THE SPECTRUM AND SCATTERING OF W(3) STRINGS Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We present a detailed investigation of scattering processes in W3-string theory. We discover further physical states with continuous momentum, which involve excitations of the ghosts as well as the matter, and use them to gain a better understanding of the interacting theory. The scattering amplitudes display factorisation properties, with states from the different sectors of the theory being exchanged in the various intermediate channels. We find strong evidence for the unitarity of the theory, despite the unusual ghost structure of some of the physical states. Finally, we show that by performing a transformation of the quantum fields that involves mixing the ghost fields with one of the matter fields, the structure of the physical states is dramatically simplified. The new formalism provides a concise framework within which to study the W3 string. 1993.

published proceedings

  • NUCLEAR PHYSICS B

author list (cited authors)

  • LU, H., POPE, C. N., SCHRANS, S., & WANG, X. J.

citation count

  • 23

complete list of authors

  • LU, H||POPE, CN||SCHRANS, S||WANG, XJ

publication date

  • November 1993