Chiral Non-Critical Strings

Abstract

It is shown that conformal matter with $c_{\ssc L}\not=c_{\ssc R}$ can be consistently coupled to two-dimensional `frame' gravity. The theory is quantized in conformal gauge, following David, and Distler and Kawai. There is no analogue of the $c=1$ barrier found in nonchiral non-critical strings. A non-critical heterotic string is constructed---it has 744 states in its spectrum, transforming in the adjoint representation of $(E_8)^3.$ Correlation functions are calculated in this example, revealing the existence of extra discrete states.