Diffeomorphism in Closed String Field Theory

Abstract

We explain how the spacetime diffeomorphism in the classical bosonic closed string field theory (SFT) is represented as $L_\infty$ gauge transformations in weakly curved backgrounds. In particular, we demonstrate the explicit map between covariant spacetime fields and the string fields in the flat-vertex frame to the leading few orders in perturbation theory. We further consider a Batalin-Vilkovisky system of extended string fields that manifests diffeomorphism invariance and allows for extending certain perturbative SFT solutions to the large field regime.