Higher Order Action for the Interaction of the String with the Dilaton

Abstract

The theory of the string in interaction with a dilaton background field is analyzed. In the action considered, the metric in the world sheet of the string is the induced metric, and the theory presents second order time derivatives. The canonical formalism is developed and it is showed that first and second class constraints appear. The degrees of freedoom are the same than for the free bosonic string. The light cone gauge is used to reduce to the physical modes and to compute the physical hamiltonian.