Bosonic string from Beltrami Chern-Simons

Abstract: It is well understood how the 2d free scalar CFT emerges from 3d Chern-Simons theory with chiral boundary conditions. Adapting a recent proposal of Costello and Stefański, I will show how bosonic string theory can be obtained from this description by coupling to a dynamical Beltrami differential in the 3d theory. In particular, I will show how this Beltrami differential restores worldsheet diffeomorphism and Weyl invariance in the 2d theory, and recover the Polyakov action explicitly. By rewriting the theory in the BV formalism, I will show how the bc ghost system arises from the 3d perspective. Finally, if there is sufficient time, I’ll provide the 3d realization of vertex operators. This talk is based on work in progress with Kevin Costello and Bogdan Stefański.

HEP - theorymathematical physicsexactly solvable and integrable systems

Audience: researchers in the topic

London Integrability Journal Club

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