D Branes from Liouville Strings

Abstract

We develop quantization aspects of our Liouville approach to non-critical strings, proposing a path-integral formulation of a second quantization of string theory, that incorporates naturally the couplings of string sources to background fields. Such couplings are characteristic of macroscopic string solutions and/or $D$-brane theories. Resummation over world-sheet genera in the presence of stringy ($\sigma$-model) soliton backgrounds, and recoil effects associated with logarithmic operators on the world sheet, play a crucial r\^ole in inducing such sources as well-defined renormalization-group counterterms. Using our Liouville renormalization group approach, we derive the appropriate second-order equation of motion for the $D$ brane. We discuss within this approach the appearance of open strings, whose ends carry non-trivial Chan-Paton-like quantum numbers related to the $W_\infty$ charges of two-dimensional string black holes.