String Interactions in PP-Waves

Abstract

We argue that string interactions in a PP-wave spacetime are governed by an effective coupling $g_{eff}=g_s(\mu p^+\apm)f(\mu p^+ \apm)$ where $f(\mu p^+ \apm)$ is proportional to the light cone energy of the string states involved in the interaction. This simply follows from generalities of a Matrix String description of this background. $g_{eff}$ nicely interpolates between the expected result ($g_s$) for flat space (small $\mu p^+\apm$) and a recently conjectured expression from the perturbative gauge theory side (large $\mu p^+\apm$).