A Look at the Discretized Superstring Using Random Matrices

Abstract

Beginning with a review of the arguments leading to the so-called c=1 barrier in the continuum formulation of noncritical string theory, the pathology is then exhibited in a discretized version of the theory, formulated through dynamical triangulation of two dimensional random surfaces. The effect of embedding the string in a superspace with fermionic coordinates is next studied in some detail. Using techniques borrowed from the theory of random matrices, indirect arguments are presented to establish that such an embedding may stabilize the two dimensional world sheet against degeneration into a branched polymer-like structure, thereby leading to a well-defined continuum string theory in a spacetime of dimension larger than 2.