Geometry of Area Without Length

Abstract

To define a free string by the Nambu-Goto action, all we need is the notion of area, and mathematically the area can be defined directly in the absence of a metric. Motivated by the possibility that string theory admits backgrounds where the notion of length is not well defined but a definition of area is given, we study space-time geometries based on the generalization of metric to area metric. In analogy with Riemannian geometry, we define the analogues of connections, curvatures and Einstein tensor. We propose a formulation generalizing Einstein's theory that will be useful if at a certain stage or a certain scale the metric is ill-defined and the space-time is better characterized by the notion of area. Static spherical solutions are found for the generalized Einstein equation in vacuum, including the Schwarzschild solution as a special case.