Strings in Ramond-Ramond backgrounds

Abstract

We write the type IIB worldsheet action in classes of bosonic curved backgrounds threaded with Ramond-Ramond fluxes. The fixing of the kappa symmetry in the light-cone gauge and the use of the Bianchi identities of the supergravity theory lead to an expression of a relatively simple form, yet rich with new physical information about how fundamental strings react to the presence of RR fields. The results are useful in particular to the study of vacuum structure and dynamics in the context of the Holographic duality; and to possibly formulate an open-closed string duality at the level of the worldsheet.