Two-Loop Superstrings III, Slice Independence and Absence of Ambiguities

Abstract

The chiral superstring measure constructed in the earlier papers of this series for general gravitino slices is examined in detail for slices supported at two points x_\alpha. In this case, the invariance of the measure under infinitesimal changes of gravitino slices established previously is strengthened to its most powerful form: the measure is shown, point by point on moduli space, to be locally and globally independent from the points x_\alpha, as well as from the superghost insertion points p_a, q_\alpha introduced earlier as computational devices. In particular, the measure is completely unambiguous. The limit x_\alpha = q_\alpha is then well defined. It is of special interest, since it elucidates some subtle issues in the construction of the picture-changing operator Y(z) central to the BRST formalism. The formula for the chiral superstring measure in this limit is derived explicitly.