Boundary conditions and heterotic construction in topological membrane theory

Boundary Conditions and Heterotic Construction in Topological Membrane Theory

Using the topological membrane approach to string theory, we suggest a geometric origin for the heterotic string. We show how different membrane boundary conditions lead to different string theories. We discuss the construction of closed oriented strings and superstrings, and demonstrate how the heterotic construction naturally arises from a specific choice of boundary conditions on the left an...

Topological Amplitudes in Heterotic Superstring Theory ⋆

We show that certain heterotic string amplitudes are given in terms of correlators of the twisted topological (2,0) SCFT, corresponding to the internal sector of the N = 1 spacetime supersymmetric background. The genus g topological partition function F g corresponds to a term in the effective action of the form W 2g , where W is the gauge or gravitational superfield. We study also recursion re...

Conformal boundary conditions and three-dimensional topological field theory

We present a general construction of all correlation functions of a two-dimensional rational conformal field theory, for an arbitrary number of bulk and boundary fields and arbitrary topologies. The correlators are expressed in terms of Wilson graphs in a certain three-manifold, the connecting manifold. The amplitudes constructed this way can be shown to be modular invariant and to obey the cor...

Conformal Boundary Conditions and 3d Topological Field Theory

Topological field theory in three dimensions provides a powerful tool to construct correlation functions and to describe boundary conditions in two-dimensional conformal field theories.

Heterotic conformal field theory and Gepner's construction.