``Theory of Theories'' Approach to String Theory

TL;DR

The paper introduces a novel formulation of gauge theories as a quantum system with the gauge action as a dynamical variable, leading to a topological field theory-like structure that can reproduce standard gauge theories and aims to be applied to string field theory.

Contribution

It presents a new 'theory of theories' framework where gauge actions are quantized as dynamical variables, providing a potential foundation for closed string field theory.

Findings

Reproduces ordinary gauge theories via path-integral dominated by classical solutions.

Formulation reduces to a topological field theory upon quantization.

Provides a new perspective for formulating string field theory.

Abstract

We propose a new formulation of gauge theories as a quantum theory which has the gauge theory action $S$ as its dynamical variable. This system is described by a simple actional $I(S)$ (that is, an action for the action $S$) whose equation of motion gives the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) master equation for $S$. Upon quantization we find that our new formulation is reduced to something like a topological field theory having a BRST exact gauge-fixed actional. Therefore the present formulation can reproduce ordinary gauge theories since the path-integral over $S$ is dominated by the classical configuration which satisfies the BV master equation. This ``theory of theories'' formulation is intended to be applied to closed string field theory.