Open String Self-energy on the Lightcone Worldsheet Lattice

TL;DR

This paper studies open string self-energy on a lightcone lattice, showing how divergences can be renormalized and exploring effects of D-branes and supersymmetry on divergence cancellation.

Contribution

It extends previous work to include open string one-loop self-energy and analyzes divergence cancellation via worldsheet cosmological constants, considering D-branes and supersymmetry effects.

Findings

Ultraviolet divergences can be canceled by renormalization of bulk and boundary constants.

Open string tachyon mass shift exhibits dilaton divergence, absorbed by string tension renormalization.

D-branes introduce additional divergences, suggesting supersymmetry may be needed for cancellation.

Abstract

We continue our study of open string perturbation theory on the lightcone worldsheet lattice, which is an $M\times N$ rectangular grid. Here $M$ is the number of $P^+$ units and $N$ is the number of $ix^+$ units. We extend our previous analysis to the bosonic open string one planar loop self-energy. We find that, when all open string coordinates satisfy Neumann conditions, the ultraviolet worldsheet divergences associated with the closed string tachyon and boundary effects can be cancelled by renormalization of bulk ($AM^1$) and boundary ($BM^0$) worldsheet "cosmological constants". The bulk divergence for the open string matches that for the closed string. The open string tachyon mass shift displays the dilaton logarithmic divergence with the correct coefficient for its consistent absorption by renormalization of the string tension. The ultraviolet contribution to the open string gluon mass shift vanishes, in accord with its interpretation as a gauge particle. We also find that when the bosonic string ends on a D-brane additional negative powers of $\ln M$ multiply the bulk and boundary divergences. These can no longer be cancelled by the "cosmological constants", perhaps pointing to the need, in the presence of D-branes, for the cancellations of divergences provided by supersymmetry.