High Energy Commutators in Particle, String and Membrane Theories

Abstract

We study relativistic particle, string and membrane theories as defining field theories containing gravity in (0+1), (1+1) and (2+1) spacetime dimensions respectively. We show how an off shell invariance of the massless particle action allows the construction of an extension of the conformal algebra and induces a transition to a non-commutative spacetime geometry. This non-commutative geometry is found to be preserved in the spacetime supersymmetric massless particle theory. It is then shown how the basic bosonic commutators we found for the massless particle may also be encountered in the tensionless limit of string and membrane theories. Finally we speculate on how the non-locality introduced by these commutators could be used to construct a covariant Newtonian gravitational field theory.