nLab
open/closed string duality

Context

String theory

Physics

physics, mathematical physics

Surveys, textbooks and lecture notes


theory (physics), model (physics)

Duality

Gravity

Quantum field theory

Contents

Idea

In string theory a given Riemann surface with punctures can usually be read in different ways as describing either closed strings or open strings. For instance the disk-diagram describes equivalently a process where a closed string disappears, or a process where an open string first appears and then disappears.

Since closed string excitations induce gravity while open string excitations induce Yang-Mills fields as effective field theories, this leads to a multitude of relations between these ordinary quantum field theories, such as the KLT relations or the AdS/CFT correspondence.

References

Revised on October 25, 2012 23:30:09 by Urs Schreiber (82.169.65.155)