Quantization of a string with attached mass

TL;DR

This paper presents the quantization of a relativistic open string model with an attached mass, deriving normal modes, operator commutators, and the mass squared operator using light cone gauge.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantization approach for a string with an attached mass, including explicit derivation of normal modes and operator products.

Findings

Normal modes are explicitly derived for the string-mass system.

Operator commutators are constructed in the quantized model.

The mass squared operator is obtained in light cone gauge.

Abstract

A simple model of a relativistic open string with a point mass attached at one end is quantized. The normal modes are derived and used to construct expressions for the operator commutators. Light cone gauge is used to find the mass squared operator. The singular part of the operator product expansion is derived.