On the Universal String Theory

Abstract

Very recently Berkovits and Vafa have argued that the $N{=}0$ string is a particular choice of background of the $N{=}1$ string. Under the assumption that the physical states of the $N{=}0$ string theory came essentially from the matter degrees of freedom, they proved that the amplitudes of both string theories agree. They also conjectured that this should persist whatever the form of the physical states. The aim of this note is to prove that both theories have the same spectrum of physical states without making any assumption on the form of the physical states. We also notice in passing that this result is reminiscent of a well-known fact in the theory of induced representations and we explore what repercussions this may have in the search for the universal string theory.