The Rest-Frame Instant Form and Dirac Observables for the Open Nambu String

Abstract

The rest-frame instant form of the positive-energy part of the open Nambu string is developed. The string is described as a decoupled non-local canonical non-covariant Newton-Wigner center of mass plus a canonical basis of Wigner-covariant relative variables living in the Wigner 3-spaces. The center of mass carries a realization of the Poincare' algebra depending upon the invariant mass and the rest-spin of the string, functions of the relative variables. A canonical basis of gauge invariant Dirac observables is built with Frenet-Serret geometrical methods. Some comments on canonical quantization are made.