Towards Hamiltonian formalism for string field theory and nonlocality
Journal
Journal of High Energy Physics
Journal Volume
2025
Journal Issue
9
Start Page
119
ISSN
1029-8479
Date Issued
2025-09-16
Author(s)
Abstract
String field theories exhibit exponential suppression of interactions among the component fields at high energies due to infinite-derivative factors such as eℓ2□/2 in the vertices. This nonlocality has hindered the development of a consistent Hamiltonian formalism, leading some to question whether such a formalism is even viable. To address this challenge, we introduce a toy model inspired by string field theory and construct its Hamiltonian formalism by demanding that it reproduce all correlation functions derived from the path-integral formalism. Within this framework, we demonstrate for this toy model that physical-state constraints can be imposed to eliminate negative-norm states, while zero-norm states decouple from the physical state space. This approach provides a novel perspective on the nonlocality inherent in string field theories.
Subjects
Black Holes in String Theory
String Field Theory
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Type
journal article