WZW-like Action for Heterotic String Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper completes the heterotic string field theory by providing a closed-form action and gauge transformations, using a WZW-like construction based on pure-gauge fields in bosonic closed string theory.

Contribution

It introduces a closed-form WZW-like action for the heterotic string field theory, extending previous partial constructions with a new algebraically consistent formulation.

Findings

Closed-form expression for heterotic string field theory action

Gauge transformations explicitly constructed

Consistent algebraic structure with closed string theory

Abstract

We complete the construction of the Neveu-Schwarz sector of heterotic string field theory begun in hep-th/0406212 by giving a closed-form expression for the action and gauge transformations. Just as the Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) action for open superstring field theory can be constructed from pure-gauge fields in bosonic open string field theory, our heterotic string field theory action is constructed from pure-gauge fields in bosonic closed string field theory. The construction involves a simple alternative form of the WZW action which is consistent with the algebraic structures of closed string field theory.