Heisenberg spin chain as a worldsheet coordinate for lightcone quantized string

Abstract

Although the energy spectrum of the Heisenberg spin chain on a circle defined by $H=\frac{1}{4}\sum_{k=1}^M(\sigma_k^x\sigma_{k+1}^x+\sigma_k^y\sigma_{k+1}^y +\Delta\sigma_k^z\sigma_{k+1}^z)$ is well known for any fixed $M$, the boundary conditions vary according to whether $M\in 4\mathbb{N}+r$, where $r=-1,0,1,2$, and also according to the parity of the number of overturned spins in the state, In string theory all these cases must be allowed because interactions involve a string with $M$ spins breaking into strings with $M_1<M$ and $M-M_1$ spins (or vice versa). We organize the energy spectrum and degeneracies of $H$ in the case $\Delta=0$ where the system is equivalent to a system of free fermions. In spite of the multiplicity of special cases, in the limit $M\to\infty$ the spectrum is that of a free compactified worldsheet field. Such a field can be interpreted as a compact transverse string coordinate $x(\sigma)\equiv x(\sigma)+R_0$. We construct the bosonization formulas explicitly in all separate cases, and for each sector give the Virasoro conformal generators in both fermionic and bosonic formulations. Furthermore from calculations in the literature for selected classes of excited states, there is strong evidence that the only change for $\Delta\neq0$ is a change in the compactification radius $R_0\to R_\Delta$. As $\Delta\to-1$ this radius goes to infinity, giving a concrete example of noncompact space emerging from a discrete dynamical system. Finally we apply our work to construct the three string vertex implied by a string whose bosonic coordinates emerge from this mechanism.