High energy string-brane scattering for massive states

TL;DR

This paper analyzes high-energy string-brane scattering involving massive states, revealing universal energy dependence and confirming the eikonal approximation for the string S-matrix.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of tree-level amplitudes for massive string states scattering off D-branes, using world-sheet OPE and effective vertex operators, and confirms the eikonal form of the S-matrix.

Findings

Universal energy dependence of scattering amplitudes

Agreement with the eikonal operator form of the S-matrix

Analysis of processes involving different mass states from the leading Regge trajectory

Abstract

String-brane interactions provide an ideal framework to study the dynamics of the massive states of the string spectrum in a non-trivial background. We present here an analysis of tree-level amplitudes for processes in which an NS-NS string state from the leading Regge trajectory scatters from a D-brane into another state from the leading Regge trajectory, in general of a different mass, at high energies and small scattering angles. This is done by using world-sheet OPE methods and effective vertex operators. We find that this class of processes has a universal dependence on the energy of the projectile and that the tree-level amplitudes are in agreement with the eikonal operator form of the string S-matrix.