http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
Gauge theories of extended 2D conformal symmetries
Gauge theories of extended two-dimensional conformal symmetries
In this dissertation, we study various aspects of W algebras
and W strings, which are generalizations of the bosonic
string theory with higher-spin world-sheet symmetries. We
investigate the structure of the BRST operator for the W3
string theory, and the generalization to higher-spin string
theories implied by this BRST operator. We present a simple
procedure for constructing the complete cohomology of the
two-scalar and multi-scalar W3 strings. We present a
procedure for computing gauge-invariant scattering amplitudes
for W strings, and use this procedure to calculate many three
and four-point functions for the multi-scalar W3 string. We
study the spectrum of physical states for W2,, strings, based
on two-dimensional theories with local spin-2 and spin-s
symmetries, and explore the relation of the resulting
effective Virasoro string theories to certain minimal models.