Tensionless Tales of Compactification

Abstract

We study circle compactifications of tensionless bosonic string theory, both at the classical and the quantum level. The physical state condition for different representations of BMS$_3$, the worldsheet residual gauge symmetry for tensionless strings, admits three inequivalent quantum vacua. We obtain the compactified mass spectrum in each of these vacua using canonical quantization and explicate their properties.