Central Charge Reduction and Spacetime Statistics in the Fractional Superstring

TL;DR

This paper investigates how internal projections in fractional superstrings reduce their effective central charges and allow for consistent spacetime statistics, providing explicit character formulas and a current-based description of the projection.

Contribution

It introduces explicit character formulas for the effective worldsheet theory and describes the projection process using a dimension-three current.

Findings

Effective central charges are reduced by internal projections.

States in the effective theory can be assigned definite spacetime statistics.

Projection is described by a dimension-three current in the original theory.

Abstract

Fractional superstrings in the tensor-product formulation experience ``internal projections'' which reduce their effective central charges. Simple expressions for the characters of the resulting effective worldsheet theory are found. All states in the effective theory can be consistently assigned definite spacetime statistics. The projection to the effective theory is shown to be described by the action of a dimension-three current in the original tensor-product theory.