Renormalisation of gravitational self interaction for wiggly strings

Abstract

It is shown that for any elastic string model with energy density $U$ and tension $T$, the divergent contribution from gravitational self interaction can be allowed for by an action renormalisation proportional to $(U-T)^2$. This formula is applied to the important special case of a bare model of the transonic type (characterised by a constant value of the product $UT$) that represents the macroscopically averaged effect of shortwavelength wiggles on an underlying microscopic model of the Nambu-Goto type (characterised by $U=T$).