A New Sigma Model Action for the Four-Dimensional Green-Schwarz Heterotic Superstring

Abstract

The sigma model action described in this paper differs in four important features from the usual sigma model action for the four-dimensional Green-Schwarz heterotic superstring in a massless background. Firstly, the action is constructed on an N=(2,0) super-worldsheet using a Kahler potential and an Ogievetsky-Sokatchev constraint; secondly, the target-space background fields are unconstrained; thirdly, the target-space dilaton couples to the two-dimensional curvature; and fourthly, the action reduces in a flat background to a free-field action. A conjecture is made for generalizing this N=(2,0) sigma model action to the ten-dimensional Green-Schwarz heterotic superstring in a manner that preserves these four new features.