STRING FIELD THEORY AND GAUGE THEORIES
This chapter shows that both Chern-Simons gauge theories and matrix models with polynomial potentials can be realized as open string theories. To show that Chern-Simons theory and matrix models with polynomial potentials are open string theories the strategy is to prove that these gauge theories describe the spacetime dynamics of topological open strings on certain backgrounds. To do this, string field theory is used. Some basic ingredients of the cubic string field theory introduced by Witten (1986) to describe the spacetime dynamics of open bosonic strings are described. The same model is used to describe topological strings. In bosonic open string field theory, the worldsheet of the string is considered to be an infinite strip parameterized by a spatial coordinate and a time coordinate.
Keywords: string field theory, gauge theories, Chern-Simons theory, topological strings, Calabi-Yau manifolds, matrix models, open string theory
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .