Towards the n-point one-loop superstring amplitude I: Pure spinors and superfield kinematics

Abstract

This is the first installment of a series of three papers in which we describe a method to determine higher-point correlation functions in one-loop open-superstring amplitudes from first principles. In this first part, we exploit the synergy between the cohomological features of pure-spinor superspace and the pure-spinor zero-mode integration rules of the one-loop amplitude prescription. This leads to the study of a rich variety of multiparticle superfields which are local, have covariant BRST variations, and are compatible with the particularities of the pure-spinor amplitude prescription. Several objects related to these superfields, such as their non-local counterparts and the so-called BRST pseudo-invariants, are thoroughly reviewed and put into new light. Their properties will turn out to be mysteriously connected to products of one-loop worldsheet functions in packages dubbed "generalized elliptic integrands", whose prominence will be seen in the later parts of this series of papers.