Weyl Invariant Gonihedric Strings

Abstract

We study quantum corrections in the earlier proposed string theory, which is based on Weyl invariant purely extrinsic curvature action. At one-loop level it remains Weyl invariant irrespective of the dimension D of the embedding spacetime. To some extent the counterterms are reminiscent of the ones in pure quantum gravity. At classical level the string tension is equal to zero and quarks viewed as open ends of the surface are propagating freely without interaction. We demonstrate that quantum fluctuations generate nonzero area term (string tension).