Coupling the Superstring to a D-Brane Ramond-Ramond Background

Abstract

We propose a new approach for coupling the type II superstring to the Ramond-Ramond background of D-branes in the RNS formalism, alternative to introducing RR vertex operators. It is based on the mixing between Ramond-Ramond p-form excitations in the closed string spectrum and transversally polarized excitations in the open string spectrum.