Abstract
The open Nambu string is revisited in the spirit of an early approach by Rohrlich. Strictly timelike motions only are considered. The proper-time of the center-of-mass is taken as preferred parameter. We propose a canonical formalism in terms of a countable infinity of variables, among them the modes. But the barycentric coordinates have noncommuting components, which makes possible a consistent quantization (in any dimension, four in particular) within the framework of a transverse space of states. If a maximal number of modes is further fixed, a transverse Hilbert space emerges, where spacetime displacements preserve the (positive-definite) scalar product.
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This article is dedicated to Fritz Rohrlich.
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Droz-Vincent, P. The massive bosonic string in the center-of-mass gauge. Found Phys 24, 525–541 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02058062
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02058062