Relating the RNS and Pure Spinor Formalisms for the Superstring

Abstract

Recently, the superstring was covariantly quantized using the BRST-like operator $Q = \oint \lambda^\alpha d_\alpha$ where $\lambda^\alpha$ is a pure spinor and $d_\alpha$ are the fermionic Green-Schwarz constraints. By performing a field redefinition and a similarity transformation, this BRST-like operator is mapped to the sum of the Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz BRST operator and $\eta_0$ ghost. This map is then used to relate physical vertex operators and tree amplitudes in the two formalisms. Furthermore, the map implies the existence of a $b$ ghost in the pure spinor formalism which might be useful for loop amplitude computations.