Open Strings, Holography and Stochastic Processes

Abstract

We use the correspondence between string states and local operators on the world-sheet boundary defined by vertex operators in open string theory to put in correspondence, holographically, the bosonic open string with the large N limit of a mechanical system living on the world-sheet boundary. We give a natural interpretation of this system in terms of a one-dimensional stochastic process and show that the correspondence takes the form of a map between two conformal field theories with central charge c=24 and c=1.