The semi-classical energy of open Nambu-Goto strings

Jochen Zahn
May 25, 2016
We compute semi-classical corrections to the energy of rotating Nambu-Goto strings, using methods from quantum field theory on curved space-times. We find that the energy density diverges in a non-integrable way near the boundaries. Regularizing these divergences with boundary counterterms, we find the Regge intercept $a = 1 + \frac{D-2}{24}$ for $D$ dimensional target space.

Keywords: 
locally covariant quantum field theory, string theory