Phase Transition in Rigid String Coupled to Kalb-Ramond Fields

Abstract

Polyakov has argued that the QCD string should have long range order. We show that a phase transition does exist in a generalization of string theory characterized by the addition of the curvature of the world sheet (rigidity) and the long range Kalb-Ramond interactions to the Nambu-Goto action. Although rigid strings coupled to long range interactions exhibit the typical pathologies of higher derivative theories at the classical level, we comment based on previous results in rigid paths coupled to long range Coulomb interactions that both phases of the quantum theory are free of ghosts and tachyons.