Nuclear Physics B288 (1987) 525-550

North-Holland, Amsterdam

S T R I N G L O O P C O R R E C T I O N S T O BETA F U N C T I O N S

C.G. CALLANl, C. LOVELACE2, C.R. NAPPI3 and S.A. YOST3

Joseph Henry Laboratories, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08540, USA

Received 26 November 1986

We study the problem of finding the beta functions, and the associated spacetime effective
action, for interacting open and closed strings propagating in background fields. String loop
divergences play a crucial role in this problem. Cancelling them against sigma model divergences
gives a consistent set of loop-corrected beta functions, which can be derived from a simple
generalization of the string-tree-leveleffective action. This suggests the existence of new string
theories which are conformallyinvariant only after all world sheets have been summed.

1. Introduction

The close connection between conformally invariant two-dimensional sigma mod-

els and classical string physics is by now well understood: The coupling constant
functions of the sigma model may be identified with spacetime expectation values of
the massless string modes; the conformal invariance condition (the condition that
all the renormalization group beta functions vanish) amounts to a set of spacetime
equations of motion for these modes [1-5]; all of these equations may be derived
from a single spacetime effective action; and, finally, this action is the one-particle-
irreducible generating functional for the massless particle string tree S-matrix [6, 7].
One virtue of this approach is that it allows us to translate information about
two-dimensional field theory, gained by standard methods, into information about
classical string theory.
It is natural to ask whether this method can be generalized to deal with the effects
of string loop (i.e. quantum) corrections. There is a well-defined string-loop expan-
sion parameter, e ~ (where ~ is the background dilaton field) and it is plausible
b o t h that the background field equations of motion should have a power series
expansion in e -~ and that they be derivable from a spacetime effective action, itself
having a power series expansion in e ~. What is not clear is whether such
loop-corrected equations of motion could be interpreted as the conformal invariance
conditions of some appropriately generalized two-dimensional field theory. A posi-

1Supported in part by DOE grant DE-AC02-76ER-03072.

2 On leave from Rutgers University. Supported in part by NSF grant PHY84-15534.
3 Supported in part by NSF grant PHY-80-19754.

0550-3213/87/$03.500 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

(North-Holland Physics Publishing Division)
526 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to S-functions

tive answer would shed useful light on the deeper symmetry structure of string field
theory, and would probably suggest new ways to look for string-compatible vacua.
Lovelace [8] and Fischler and Susskind [9] have suggested a way of generalizing
the renormalization group beta functions of sigma models to include string loop
effects. The idea is that, if the loop expansion is defined by the Polyakov path
integral sum over world sheets of different topology, nonstandard sigma model
counterterms are required to remove the divergences in the modular parameter
integrations over inequivalent world sheets of the same topology. Letting the
renormalization group flow be defined by the sum of the standard and nonstandard
counterterms defines loop-corrected beta functions whose vanishing can be taken as
the conformal invariance conditions of a generalized sigma model. Fischler and
Susskind showed that, by using this strategy in a very simple contest, it was possible
to see the cosmological constant of closed bosonic string theory appearing as a
one-loop correction to the beta function for the background metric field.
In this paper we extend this very promising idea to more elaborate contexts where
it is possible to apply nontrivial internal consistency checks. We regard this as quite
important, since the regulation and renormalization procedure used to define the
new counterterms is rather ad hoc and not guaranteed to maintain the spacetime
gauge symmetries of string theory. Specifically, we determine the first corrections to
closed string beta functions due to open string loops, with the effects of open and
closed string background fields included. With this knowledge of background field
dependence, we can make a nontrivial check of the mutual consistency of the
loop-corrected beta function equations. We do find consistency and find further-
more that the full equations may be derived from a loop-corrected spacetime action
of very reasonable form. It is probable that this action generates the appropriate
loop-corrected S-matrix elements of string theory. In short, the entire set of
relationships between sigma models, beta functions and the string theory S-matrix
seems to survive the passage from tree to loop amplitudes. The precise nature of the
conformal invariance of the underlying sigma model, apart from the observation
that it involves cancellation of conformal invariance violations between different
world sheets, remains only partially understood.
The paper is organized as follows: In sects. 2 and 3 we determine the tree-level
beta functions for open and closed strings in general backgrounds. This actually
allows us to infer what the open string loop corrections to the closed string beta
functions must be. In sect. 4 we review, and slightly improve, the Fischler and
Susskind computation of the first closed string loop corrections to beta functions. In
sect. 5 we find the counterterms needed to renormalize open string loop divergences
in general background fields and derive the associated loop corrections to closed
string beta functions. In sect. 6 we discuss the meaning and internal consistency of
our results and draw conclusions. In an appendix, we present an alternative
derivation of our key results by more conventional operator methods (as opposed to
the sigma model methods used in the body of the paper).
 C G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to B-functions 527

2. Background field sigma model beta functions

The sigma model describing the coupling of a closed string to the massless
backgrounds g~, b~, and ~ is

1
Sc = - - f d2z [!/y'gabg~v ( X ) CgaX~Obx v
4 ~rot'

+eabb,,,(X) OaX"ObX"-½a'gr~R(2)q~(X)], (2.1)

where X" is the spacetime coordinate of the string, 3'ab is the world sheet metric,
and R (2) is its curvature. Equations of motion for the backgrounds are obtained by
imposing conformal invariance or, equivalently, demanding that the renormalization
group beta function for each field vanish. Among other things, this makes the
physics independent of conformal transformations on the world sheet metric. At
string tree level and to leading order in a', the beta functions are [4]

j~gv = Ritv - an;p-

1 2 V~V/p,

f i b = trvX H , 1

fl~' = - R + 1 H 2 + 2V'2q~ + (V't~) 2, (2.2)

where Hx~ . = 3Vixb,, ]. Remarkably, the equations obtained by setting these beta
functions to zero are equivalent to the equations of motion for the spacetime action

Sg~gsed=f dDxgrge*[R-~H2-(V',)2-av2eO]=- f dDxv~eq'flq', (2.3)

where D is the spacetime dimension. The relation between the variational equations
for this action and the above beta functions is

3
sclosed
eel - ¢~-e*fl*,

3
3b~,,

8 / ,closed =
+ ½gp,~/"eft grg-e*flgp • (2.4)

A systematic loop expansion of the two-dimensional field theory leads to an

expansion of the beta functions and the effective action in powers of a', or
528 CG. Caftan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions

derivatives of the background fields [6,10, 7]. This whole procedure generates the
conditions on closed string background fields arising from tree-level, or classical
string physics.
Our main concern in this paper will be the way in which the background field
equations are modified by non-classical, or string-loop, effects. As mentioned in the
introduction, we have found it very useful to approach this problem indirectly, by
studying tree-level open strings in general backgrounds. This gives us very useful
information about string loop physics because of the well-known fact that the basic
interaction between open and closed strings is really a loop phenomenon.
The problem of an open string coupled to open string backgrounds has been
considered by several authors [11-14]. The appropriate sigma model is

1 0
So= f d 2z ll~yabOaX ~*ObXJ*-~dsAt,( X)-~s X ~ , (2.5)

where ds is the length element around the boundary induced by "lab- In this case,
the beta function was found to be

,8~ = 2rro~'V~F~ [1 - (2rra'F)2] 21 . (2.6)

This result is valid to all orders in a' and to lowest order in derivatives of F. Setting
/3A= 0 gives an equation of motion equivalent to that which follows from the
Born-Infeld action

Sef pen=
f
f dDx ¢det(1 + 27ra'F) (2 7)

The variation of this action is in fact

.~,eff =
~A ~ vopen
-¢det(1 + 2~ra'F)[1
_
(2~ra r F ) 2 ],v
-1 u
fl]- (2.8)

This is compatible with the observation that the effective action and the beta
functions are not expected to be identical, but rather to satisfy the relation

8seff/~A~ = v A

for a nonsingular matrix X,, [6,15]. For our purposes, it will be necessary to know
the beta functions for the open string in a general background of both closed and
open strings. The relevant results and representative calculations are presented in
the next section.
 C G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions 529

3. Open strings in general backgrounds

The coupling of an open string to all massless backgrounds, arising from both
closed and open strings, is described by a sigma model of the form

S = m 1 f d 2 z [ v ~ 3 , . b g . . ( X ) O~X.ObX ~
4 ~ra'

--ieabb.~(
X) O~X g ObX ~ - ½a'Cy-R(2)~ ( X ) ]

1 [ o ] (3.1)
+ 2ira' ds iA.(X)--XU-os ½a'keo(X) '

where k is the extrinsic curvature of the boundary and A t has been rescaled to
include a factor of 1/2~ra'. Both the world sheet and spacetime metrics are taken to
be euclidean. The coupling of the dilaton to the boundary curvature is needed
because e e is the coupling constant of the string theory, and therefore must multiply
the entire Euler density. If we work in a conformal gauge 3'ab = eZ°~ab and let r
denote the coordinate along the boundary, then v~-R (2) = 2 [] p and k ds = - Onp dr,
where O, is the exterior normal derivative. Then the world sheet action may be
rewritten as

1
S [ X ] = ~ a , f d2z[g.~(X) OaX"O.X ~

--ie~bb..( X) O~X" ObX ~ + a' O~pV/oO~X"]

i
+ 2rra---7~d'rA~,(X) O.~X~'. (3.2)

We will expand (3.2) about a classical background X, using a normal coordinate

defined about X. Since the dilaton action is of a higher order than the rest of the
action, we take .~ to satisfy the variational equations of the ~-independent part of
the action, i.e.

( gff Oa -1-l'l~vXOa~Tt nt- ~11-...txvx,Eab

11 Ob2X ) Oa2v = O,

0n ~u - i (b + F ) "~ O, 2 ~ = 0 on the boundary. (3.3)

530 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions

The normal coordinate expansion of (3.2) is [14,16]

1
812, (1--s[xl + -47fdazOoo[~v~G¢(x) Gx"+ V . O ( X ) D ~ " +
v
O(~2)]

1
+ ~ f d2z [g..(.Y) N ~ " N a ( ~ + (3~b--e ~b)

i
+ 47r-a'~dr [(b(X') + F( ~-'))..~" D~"

+~x~°v~(b + F ) x . 0 . 2 " + 0(~3)], (3.4)

1
where ~ is the generalized curvature for the connection F + IH, namely

~ . x p . = ~,xo. + ½iv~H.xo - - xH,,.o H ~x +

and we define
D o e = (g". aa + r ~ a a ~ ) ~ ~,

~" = D ~ ~ + 2lH u)~eab O b X ~ v.

Comparing with [13], we notice that on the boundary, F.. is replaced by F~. + b~..
Along the lines of [13], one can use the terms g.. O~" 0 ~ ~ and (b + F)..~" 8.~" in
(3.4) to define the propagator. At open string tree level, we may take the world sheet
to be the upper half-plane, with z = r + io. Then we obtain the propagator

G . . ( z , z') = -
1[
~a G.lnlz - z'l 2

+ - i n ( z - ~') + l n ( ~ - z') (3.5)

g ~7]~ ~-b-~ .~ •

In the limit where g, b, and F are constant, this propagator is exact. Using (3.5) to
compute the tadpole graph of fig. la gives a contribution to flf analogous to the
previous result (2.6), namely

~7"(b+ F ) ~ [ g - ( b + F)2] -1

As shown in [14], there is also an H-dependent contribution to flA, which comes

 C.G.Callanet aL / Stringloopcorrectionsto fl-functions 531
HSrX
(a)~ (b)~Or~
¢Va~ ¢
(F+b)OrX F+b
Fig. 1. Graphs contributingto fla. The line . . . . indicatesthe propagator (3.5).

from the graph fig. lb. If we use the exact propagator to compute this graph and use
the equations of motion (3.3), we find an addition

~x [ b+F
½(b+ F)u,H °[g_-~+F)2]xp

to /37. There is also a dilaton contribution to flA, which, to lowest order in

derivatives of @, is determined by a sigma-model tree-level calculation. The tree
level contribution to the trace of the stress-energy tensor is the variation of the
dilaton action with respect to the conformal factor of the world sheet metric, i.e.

6 2 1 1 1
g f d z 4= Oap v.epOoX" = - -VV.p/OoY"OoE"-4=

1
+ ~8(o(z)) V,, 0,2".

The last term is localized on the boundary and may be rewritten as

i
4= 8( o( z ) ) gr/p( b + F)", 0,2"
using the equations of motion (3.3). It obviously contributes a term ½V"q~(b+ F)~,
to fla. The complete fla is the suha of the above contributions and is found to be

flA = V " ( V + b)uX[g - ( F + b)2]• 1

+½(F+B),,H~XO[ F+b ]
g_~++b)2jxo+½V~ep(r+b),~. (3.6)

The noncovariant F-dependent terms in (3.4) do not contribute to flA when 2

satisfies (3.3).
The spacetime effective action associated with the equation of motion (3.6) is the
generalized Born-Infeld action

Sa, °n = f dDxe ~'/2 (det(g + b + V ) . (3.7)

532 C.G. Callan et a L / String loop corrections to fl-functions

The variation of this effective action with respect to A ~ is

- e~'/Z(det(g + b + F ) [ g - (b + F)Z],~lfl~

with flA as defined in (3.6). Therefore, the vanishing of this variation is equivalent
to/3 A = 0 .
Although the open-string and closed-string beta functions are logically indepen-
dent of one another (after all, they arise from different sigma models evaluated on
different world sheets), it is quite natural to guess that the proper way to describe
interacting open and closed strings is simply to add the associated actions, (3.7) and
(2.3), together (with an as-yet-undetermined relative coefficient x). The proposed
full effective action is therefore
=f d~x [ 7 r g e * ( R - ~2H 2 - (Vq~) 2 - 2V2q~)+ t¢ e¢/Z~det(g + b + F ) ] .

(3.8)
Since the original terms in the effective action are of second order in derivatives of
the fields, while the added terms are dimensionless, we note that K will be of order
a'-1. Note that (3.8) is invariant under the combined transformation

b,, ~ b~, + 2VI~P~I, A~ A ~ - ~'~. (3.9)

This implies that A, can be totally absorbed in b,~ by a Higgs mechanism of a type
familiar in supergravity theories [17]. This effective action exactly reproduces the
open string beta function equations, but not those of the closed string. There are
additional terms in the variational equations for g,,, bu~, and q5 which amount to
gauge-field source terms for the closed-string fields. Specifically, we find

8
g
S eft
t°t~l --- -v/ge*fl ~' + ½x e 't'/2 ~/det(g + b + F )

8b~"8 oeffct°t~= 7r~e./3b + ½~C,/2~det(g + b + F ) [ g _ ~ + F ) 2

b+F ]~

8
--+2g#v~-~ "eft (b+F)2]~ '

(3.10)

where fig, fib, and fl* are given by (2.2). The new terms are certainly reasonable
(after all, gauge fields must act as a source for gravity), but are not visible in the
standard treatment of closed string beta functions: As noted in refs. [13] and [14],
 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to S-functions 533

the presence of a boundary does not change the beta functions of the closed string
massless fields. When the relevant graphs are computed, it is found that the only
possible changes arise from the boundary terms in the propagator (3.5). However,
these terms do not contribute to the divergences which give the closed string beta
functions. In particular, the boundary contribution to G~,(z, z') is finite as z ~ z' in
the interior of the world sheet, so the logarithmic tadpole divergences responsible
for the one-loop contributions to/3g and/3 ° are unchanged. It is straightforward to
check that the other contributions to (2.2) are unchanged as well. The only
difference is that/3 ~ is now the coefficient of the entire Euler density, rather than
R ~2), in the trace of the sigma model stress-energy tensor. Therefore, if the new
terms in the closed string beta functions are correct, they must arise from as-yet-
unaccounted-for physics.
An essential clue is that the new terms contain a factor of e ~/2 relative to the
original closed-string beta functions and must therefore be regarded as string-loop
corrections. In the next section, we will discuss a general proposal for computing
such corrections to beta functions and, in the rest of the paper, we will use it to
show that all the equations of motion derived from (3.8) are interpretable as
loop-corrected beta functions.

4. Loop corrections to beta functions: general strategy

That string loops must modify the sigma-model beta functions is obvious. Fairly
concrete suggestions about how to calculate this modification have been made by
one of us [8], and independently by Fischler and Susskind [9]. The idea is that the
divergences of string loop perturbation theory can be eliminated by new counter-
terms in the sigma model action, over and above those needed to renormalize the
usual perturbative divergences, and that the new counterterms can be thought of as
generating corrections to the usual renormalization group beta functions. In particu-
lar, for the closed bosonic string, Fischler and Susskind showed that, in a fiat
spacetime background, the renormalization of one-string-loop diagrams adds a
cosmological constant term to the beta function for the metric tensor. In the rest of
this paper, we will adapt these ideas to the case of nontrivial spacetime backgrounds
and show that it reproduces the loop-corrected closed-string beta functions derived
heuristically above. In this section we will rederive, from our point of view, the
results of Fischler and Susskind, both to review the essentials of the method and to
introduce, in a simple context, some arguments which will be important later on.
Consider the closed bosonic string in general metric and dilaton background
fields, g ~ ( X ) and ~(X). It is described by the nonlinear sigma model action Sc
given in (2.3) with b~ = 0. In the Polyakov path integral approach, the partition
function of this theory on the two-sphere (toms, etc.) gives the physics of string
no-loop (one-loop, etc.) amplitudes. Since the two-dimensional nonlinear sigma
model is renormalizable, not finite, a counterterm action built out of dimension-two
534 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to B-functions

operators must be added to Sc to yield finite results. The general form of that action
is

8Sc - l ° g A
2¢r
fd2z[f~V~Sg..(X) OoX"ObX"-½a'v/-~R'2'Seo(X)] (4.1)
where A is a cutoff parameter and 8g, 8~ are functions of the background fields.
They define the renormalization group beta functions, whose vanishing is the
condition for sigma model conformal invariance.
In performing the sum over two-dimensional world sheets to get the string loop
expansion, the conformal invariance of the sigma model makes it only necessary to
sum over conformally inequivalent surfaces. For a given genus world sheet, this
leaves a finite-dimensional parameter space, known as Teichmiiller space, to in-
tegrate over. The crucial points for our purposes are that the Teichmiiller parameter
integrations in general do not converge; that the divergences come from boundaries
of the parameter space where topological fixtures (such as handles) shrink to zero
size; that the divergence coming from shrinking a single fixture away is proportional
to the insertion of a simple local operator on the lower-genus world sheet obtained
by removing the shrunken fixture altogether [18]. For the sigma model correspond-
ing to flat empty spacetime, the divergence associated with shrinking away a single
handle is equivalent to the insertion of the operator

log A
2~r C~I~,~OoX/zO~Xv, (4.2)

where A is some convenient cutoff on the Teichmiiller integration (which we

identify with the cutoff used in the counterterm action (4.1)), C is the closed string
cosmological constant (as determined by a calculation of the closed string partition
function on the torus [19], for example) and ~,, is the Minkowski metric of flat
spacetime. Not coincidentally, this is the vertex operator for the emission of a
zero-momentum dilaton, and the divergence has to do with the existence of an
amplitude for emitting such a dilaton into the vacuum.
Now consider doing a closed string calculation to one-loop order. This is given by
the joint contribution of the genus zero and genus one surfaces (sphere and toms).
The observations of the previous paragraph indicate that the divergences of the
Teichmiiller parameter integrations for the torus can be eliminated (and the string
loop calculation renormalized) by adding a new counterterm lagrangian

8S~ °°p
= log2--~fd2zC~,~OaX
A .
OaX (4.3)

to the sigma model action. Since this is a dimension-two operator, it is a perfectly

legal counterterm from the point of view of two-dimensional field theory. When
 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to r-functions 535

evaluated on the sphere, it gives a divergent contribution which precisely cancels the
divergence of the torus. Since it is already a one-loop effect, it would, to this order,
be neglected in calculating the torus contribution. Thus 8Scl°°p renormalizes the
string-loop divergences in very much the same way that 8S~ renormalizes the
ordinary field theory divergences. We must make two adjustments to the above
counterterm: In a general coordinatization of flat spacetime, the Minkowski metric
*/,~ must be replaced by the general metric g,~ and, in the presence of a constant
dilaton field, we must include a factor e ~ to account for the well-known topologi-
cally-determined dependence of the path integral on the dilaton zero mode (the
torus behaves as constant while the sphere behaves as e~'; thus the counterterm must
behave as e -~ in order that, when evaluated on the sphere, it reproduce the
divergence of the torus!). The result of these corrections is

8S2oop : f d2z
log____AA aox.aox (4.4)
2~r

We will actually use this counterterm in non-flat spacetimes with nonconstant

dilaton backgrounds, in which case it must be regarded as the first term in an
expansion of the true counterterm in powers of derivatives and curvatures.
The proposal of Fischler and Susskind is that the string-loop-corrected renormal-
ization group beta functions and background field equations be read off in the
obvious way from the combined counterterm /iSc + 8S~l°°p. For the background
metric this gives

fife = R ~ - V',~7,¢ - C e - ~ g ~ , ( X ) = 0, (4.5)

an equation which resembles the Einstein equations for nonzero cosmological

constant. It differs from the similar equation written down in [9] mainly in that it
includes explicit dependence on the dilaton field. This dependence is, of course,
crucial to the consistency of the equations and it is not permissible to ignore it, as
also noticed in [20]. There is also a string-loop-corrected dilaton equation of motion,
but it is not easy to evaluate the counterterm which generates it. We will determine
what it must be, and at the same time learn something important about the
consistency of this method, by an indirect procedure.
The point is that the equation fl~, = 0 is not guaranteed to be a consistent
equation: taking its divergence, and using the equation itself plus the Bianchi
identities, it is possible to show that

v g 1
o = v = v.( - - ) 2) (4.6)

which means that

r * = ½R - V'2q, - ½(V'd?)2 = const (4.7)

536 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions

is the consistency condition for fig = 0! An equivalent system of equations (with

const = 0) is obtained by varying the spacetime action

L= f dDXv~[e~'( R - (V'ep)2- 2~y2q~)+ 2C1. (4.8)

This action is the obvious one-loop, cosmological constant generalization of the

tree-level effective action for closed strings (the relative powers of e * distinguish
terms arising at different string-loop orders). Exactly the same construction has
been used in the standard sigma model approach to string tree physics [4] where the
existence of a covariantly constant r * is guaranteed by the existence of a c-number
conformal anomaly in conformal sigma models. We know of no principle which
guarantees that the same construction will work in the current context.
The upshot of all this is that the loop-corrected beta function for the metric
implies a loop-corrected beta function for the dilaton field and the mutual con-
sistency of the two equations is guaranteed by the fact that both can be derived
from a single spacetime effective action. It was by no means obvious a priori that
this construction would continue to work for the loop-corrected beta functions, and
we take the fact that it does as an encouraging indication of the consistency of this
string loop renormalization scheme. In the rest of this paper, we will show that the
above construction may be carried out for the much more demanding case of
interacting open and closed strings in nontrivial gauge field backgrounds.

5. Open string loop corrections to beta functions

In the previous section, we studied the corrections to closed string beta functions
arising from closed string loop divergences. In this section we will consider the
effect of open string loop divergences on the same beta functions. Our interest in
open strings, we emphasize, stems from the ease with which they may be coupled to
nontrivial background fields, and the opportunity they provide for serious tests of
the internal consistency of string loop renormalization schemes. In contrast to the
closed-string case, where the divergences come from handles shrinking to zero size,
the open string divergences come from the shrinking holes in the world sheet to zero
radius. This divergence is proportional to the effect of replacing the small hole by
the insertion of a certain local operator on a lower-genus world sheet. We will
identify that operator by studying the behavior of the annulus partition function in
the limit of small inner radius. We will add some instructive complication to the
problem by coupling all world sheet boundaries to a constant background gauge
field strength. The end result of this computation will be an identification of the
background field dependence of the open-string-loop corrections to closed string
beta functions.
Consider an annulus with inner radius a and outer radius one. The propagator on
the annulus in the presence of general constant open and closed string background
 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions 537

fields, and with equal and opposite U(1) gauge charges assigned to the inner and
outer boundaries, can be shown, using the techniques of [13] to be

G~(~,~ , )_- - ~1. , -[%(z,z , ) + (5.1)

where

G~,,(z z ' ) = g ~ , l o g ( z - z') + g~, ~__llOg 1

a2nz)( a2nz l
- 1 - --
' , z z' J]

+ g+ b+ ~ , 5 1 lOg 1 - - ~ - ) ( 1 - a 2n- 2zz,') . (5.2)

We choose equal and opposite boundary charges in order that the states propagat-
ing around the loop be electrically neutral. If we consider only orientable world
sheets (i.e. if we do not include such surfaces as the projective plane or the Mrbius
strip in our world sheet summation), it is always possible to choose the boundary
charges such that all internal lines in loop diagrams are neutral. The other possible
choice, of equal charges on both boundaries, has been considered in [11]. It gives
different results, corresponds to different physics and will not be considered here. If
the background fields are not constant, the propagator is the same, but nontrivial
vertices, involving derivatives of background fields, appear in the expansion of the
sigma model action. We will ignore the effects of such terms, and our results should
be thought of as the first term in a systematic expansion of powers of spacetime
derivatives of background fields.
The expansion of the propagator in the limit as a approaches zero is

g+ b+ log(1 - zU)
,uv

-a
[(z
2 gjzv 7 + --
z
-}-
g+b ~
( 1)1
ZZ'+ --
z,T'
+O(a4). (5.3)

Substituting the first two terms in (5.3) into (5.1) gives the propagator on the unit
disk, with the boundary condition O,G,,= -¢x'g,~ at ]z] = 1. A straightforward
calculation shows that the a 2 terms are equivalent to the insertion at z = 0 on the
unit disc of the operator (see fig. 2)

2a2(g-b-F) ~
a' g + b + F ~vOzX O~X. (5.4)

This means that a scattering amplitude on the annulus of inner radius a may be
538 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions

Fig. 2. A small hole in the annulus is mimicked by an operator insertion on the disk.

computed as a power series in a 2 whose term of O(a °) is the same scattering

amplitude on the unit disc, whose term of O(a 2) is the same scattering amplitude on
the disc with one insertion of the operator (5.4), and whose higher terms correspond
to the insertion of higher-dimension operators we have not troubled to determine.
This is a particular case of known general features of the behavior of amplitudes on
higher-genus world sheets at the boundaries of moduli space [18].
Since the inner radius of the annulus is a Teichmfiller parameter, it must be
integrated over, with a measure given by certain functional determinants, in order to
obtain the total contribution of the annulus to any amplitude. Since the measure
turns out to behave as a-3 as a ~ 0, quadratic and logarithmic small-a divergences
will come from the zeroth and first terms, respectively, of the operator insertion
expansion described in the previous paragraph. In old-fashioned language, the
quadratic divergence arises from a tachyon, and the logarithmic divergence from a
dilaton or graviton, disappearing into the vacuum. The logarithmic divergence will
be proportional to the insertion on the disc of the operator (5.4), while the quadratic
divergence will be proportional to the insertion of the unit operator. Note that the
divergences are associated with insertions of operators of dimension zero and two,
the dimensions allowed by renormalizability in the sigma model. The constants of
proportionality come from the measure and will be important to us because they
depend on the background fields! To fix them, it suffices to examine the divergences
of the vacuum-to-vacuum amplitude on the annulus.
The vacuum-to-vacuum amplitudes on the disk and annulus in the presence of
open string backgrounds (but in the absence of closed string backgrounds) and
expanded to lowest order in derivatives of F, have been obtained in refs. [11] and
[13]. The result for the disc is [11]

Z disk= f d°X~/det[1 + F( X)] Zoaisk , (5.5)

where Z disk is the vacuum amplitude on the disk without a gauge field. For the
annulus, with the choice of equal and opposite boundary charges the result is [13]

Z ~ nuluS= f dDXdet [1 + F( X)] Z ~ u'us , (5.6)

 c.G. Callanet al. / Stringloopcorrectionsto fl-functions 539
where
Z~nul.s = [1 da oo
a I-I (1 - a 2n)-(°-z)
Jo ---T
n=l

= [lda
Jo -a-T[1 + ( D - 2 ) a 2 + O ( a 4 ) ] (5.7)

is the zero-field partition function for the annulus, including the ghost determinant.
Note that (5.5) is claimed to be proportional to the spacetime effective action for the
background gauge field! The background field dependence of any partition function
is in fact very divergent and this simple finite result is obtained by a careful use of
zeta-function regularization. It is in accord with the general arguments of refs. [11]
and [8] that the Polyakov path integral for a background field sigma model can be
defined to be the spacetime effective action.
The expansion of the integrand of (5.7) in powers of a 2 should, according to the
arguments given above, correspond to an expansion in insertions on the disk of
operators of increasing dimension. With a little algebra we can show that (5.7) is
reproduced by

z~mnulus = [1 d a
Jo a 3 ( ( 1 - 2a2)¢det(1 + F ) )disk

+~ ---LS-,Cdet(1 + F) O~X"O~X ~ + finite. (5.8)

/~1, disk

Note that the expectation value ((9)disk=f.~Xe-S(9(X) of an operator (9 is

proportional to the determinant (5.5), so each expectation value in (5.8) contains an
implicit factor of Cdet(1 + F ) . The explicit factor of Cdet(1 + r ) inside the
brackets in (5.8) then serves to reproduce the overall factor of det(1 + F) in (5.6).
This is the background-field-dependent constant of proportionality we wanted to
fix. The first term in (5.8) reproduces the quadratic divergence, as well as the " - 2 "
part of the logarithmic divergence (attributable to the ghosts), in the expansion
(5.7). The second term reproduces the remainder of the logarithmic divergence,
coming from the D fields X ". If we cut off the a-integration at a short distance A,
we see that the counterterm action needed to compensate for all these divergences is

[2
8S~°°P= f d2z ~-log ACdet(1 + F) ~ ~,OzX~'O~X~

+ ( A 2 - 21ogA)¢det(1 + F ) ]. (5.9)
540 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions

The first term is a counterterm for the standard dimension-two operators in the
sigma-model action and will lead, via the Fischler-Susskind type of argument, to
loop contributions to the beta functions of the massless closed string fields. The
second term is a counterterm for dimension-zero operators, which are used in the
sigma-model action to describe the interaction with background tachyon fields [21].
This term should therefore generate loop corrections to the tachyon beta function!
Since the tachyon is not present in realistic string theories, we will not concern
ourselves further with this type of term.
Our final task is to include the effect of closed string backgrounds on these
counterterms. If we work to lowest order in derivatives of background fields, the
vacuum amplitudes (5.5) and (5.6) become

Z disk= f dDXe~/Zfdet(g + b + F) Z disk ,

Z annulus = f dDXvfgdet( 1 + g - l ( b + F))Z~ nnulus . (5.10)

As usual, the coefficient of ~ is determined by the Euler character of the relevant

world sheet. The full structure of the logarithmically divergent, dimension-two
counterterm insertion is then given by

2-71°g Afd2z~det(l+g_l(b+F))e_~,/2(g-b-F
g+b+F ) 8zX~O~X~" (5"11t

Following the approach of ref. [9], we treat it as a new counterterm for the sigma
model couplings to the metric and antisymmetric tensor fields and read off from it
(by separating the symmetric and antisymmetric parts) the following open string
loop corrections to the beta functions fig and fib:

~/~Aflg = ---~7-e-~'/2(det(g+ b+ F) g + (b+ F ) 2

g - ( b + F ) 2 ~' )
1/~Aff~ - 47re-*/2~det(g+b+ F) b+F 1 (5.121
_ _ =- g_ :71 /

Comparing with (3.10), we see that these loop corrections to the closed string beta
functions are precisely those implied by the conjectured action (3.8) if we take the
undetermined coefficient ~ to have the value - 8 7 r / a ' . Note that since we have not
kept track of the world sheet curvature, or world sheet ghost field, dependence of
the loop counterterms, we cannot directly identify the loop correction to f * . We
 C G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions 541

can, however, infer what it must be by a consistency argument of the type which led
to (4.7) and will necessarily get the same equation as found by varying (3.8).
Before turning to a discussion of these results, we would like to present a brief
description (details are in the appendix) of another way to derive the crucial
background field dependence of (5.9). The divergences of open string loops can be
interpreted as due to zero mass states of the closed string disappearing into the
vacuum. In the appendix, we give a general technique for calculating the transition
amplitude, T, for this process: One first builds a Fock-space representation of the
operator V(A*, F~), made of the closed string creation operators A*, that sews a
boundary, with boundary conditions appropriate to the presence of background
gauge field strength F,., onto a closed string world sheet. We find that

V(A t, F..) = [det(1 + F)]'/Zexp E ~ A~*,. , (5.13)

~,,u=l / t~v

times a BRST ghost factor (A.26). For F = 0, this reduces to a result of Ademollo
et al. [22]. The transition amplitudes of interest to us are the expectation value of
this operator between the massless closed string states and the vacuum. We see that
for an annulus in an external electromagnetic field both the graviton and the
antisymmetric tensor field have vacuum transition amplitudes that are respectively
the symmetric and antisymmetric piece of

T(g~,b~ ->vac)=[det(l+ F)]l/2(l-F) (5.14)

tzv.

This reproduces the graviton and antisymmetric tensor part of (5.9). In the appen-
dix, we will show how, by including ghost operators in the above considerations, it
is possible to reproduce the dilaton piece as well. It is reassuring that the potentially
ill-defined background field dependence of the overall normalization of this quan-
tity can be derived in two completely independent ways. Since overall vacuum
stability of the closed string requires that loop amplitudes cancel against the tree
vacuum amplitudes, which are precisely the original sigma model beta functions [8],
the full stability condition will be precisely the loop-corrected beta functions derived
above.

6. Discussion and conclusions

Let us now try to summarize what we have learned. Perhaps the best way to
appreciate the physical content of Aflg and A/3 b is to expand both of them in
542 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to r-functions

powers of F in flat space and for vanishing b:

27t
Aflg=-a7 ( g~ - ~ g ~ F 2 + 2F2 + . . . ) ,

4~
- .- (6.1)
7 G + ..

The first term in Zlflg obviously corresponds to a finite cosmological constant

addition to the equation of motion for gravity. Whether the contribution of open
string loops to the cosmological constant of a bosonic string theory should be finite
or not is a question concerning which there has historically been some confusion.
According to our method, the answer is unambiguous. The second term in Aflg
corresponds to the classical contribution of the gauge field to the energy-momentum
tensor of matter. The origin, within the context of the sigma model, of this
absolutely crucial term has always been somewhat mysterious (though its possible
emergence from some kind of anomalous effect of small holes [23,4] had been
guessed at). Our method shows that it comes, in effect, from divergences not
accounted for in the standard field theory approach to conformal anomalies. This is
reminiscent of a recent discussion [24] of tachyon background fields, which showed
that nonperturbative divergences, due to sums of infinite subsets of sigma model
Feynman diagrams, generate the tachyon contribution to the energy-momentum
tensor of matter. Similar remarks could be made about the effects of world sheet
instantons: nonconvergence of the instanton scale size integration generates diver-
gences which must be eliminated by extra sigma model counterterms. This leads, in
turn, to new nonperturbative contributions to the beta functions and, in some
circumstances, qualitatively new physics [25,26]. Finally, the leading term in Aft b
obviously expresses the well-known linear mixing of an abelian gauge field with the
antisymmetric tensor field [17]. For a nonabelian gauge field we would expect to
recover the more subtle Chern-Simons mixing first discovered in supergravity
theories [27]. In other words, the qualitative physics incorporated in the loop-cor-
rected beta functions we have found is just right.
We expect, but have not checked, that the effective action (3.8) which generates
the new beta functions also generates the appropriately loop-corrected string
S-matrix. It should perhaps be said that, at the level we are working, the term "loop
correction" is a bit of a misnomer. Although we used the annulus to evaluate our
counterterms, the divergence we have emphasized arises first at the level of the disc!
The point is that, although the disc gives finite contributions to purely open string
S-matrix elements, it gives divergent contributions to mixed open and closed string
amplitudes. Because of the relative Euler character of the sphere and the disc, the
needed counterterms will be of order e -4/2 relative to the perturbative counter-
terms. They could have been evaluated directly on the disc, but we found it
 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to r-functions 543

convenient to identify them as a subdivergence on the annulus. In the sense of

powers of string loop coupling constant, the disc looks like a loop contribution, but
its contribution to the S-matrix will have the analytic structure of a tree amplitude
(poles, but no cuts). This, in fact, is why we were able to correctly guess the
structure of the full effective action from a tree-level (i.e. disc) open string calcula-
tion. The first true loop correction should come from the limit of the annulus in
which the inner and outer boundaries collide. We believe that the associated
counterterm is a boundary integral corresponding to a correction to flA, the gauge
field beta function.
A major defect of this treatment of string loop renormalization (and most others
as well) is the lack of a systematic regulation and renormalization procedure. The
internal consistency of our results indicates that our cavalier treatment of such
matters has not led us astray, but we can hardly expect such good luck to persist to
higher loop orders. Further progress in this area may well depend on the develop-
ment of a systematic regulation scheme which is compatible with the symmetries of
string field theory.
A very interesting question concerns the sense in which the loop-corrected sigma
model is conformally invariant. The sigma model on the disc has fl 4:0 and thus
cannot be conformally invariant by itself. Mansfield and Martinec [28] recently
pointed out that string loop divergences invalidate the formal arguments for both
BRST invariance and the decoupling of Virasoro states from the physical sector.
Since we have arranged the divergences and the vacuum instabilities to cancel
between the disc and the annulus, presumably these conformal anomalies also
cancel each other and the complete theory is free of negative metric states. We hope
to check this explicitly in future work. Our model suggests the existence of a big new
class of string theories, consistent only on all world sheets at once. They may well be
incarnations of the abstract structures on moduli space proposed by Friedan and
Shenker [29].

We wish to thank G. Moore, E. Witten and L. Yaffe for useful remarks.

Appendix

OPERATOR FOR ATTACHING A BOUNDARY

In this appendix we derive the operator which imposes an arbitrary boundary

condition on the world sheet. It generates the ancient pomeron factorization [22, 30]
and is related to a modern proposal for the offshell extension of the string
propagator [31]. Consider first a single harmonic oscillator with frequency co and
544 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions

unit mass. Let u,(q), n = 0,1, 2,... be its normalized position space wave functions
{ ~ /1/4
u.(q)=[~) 2-"/2(n?)-Z/2H.(~l/2q)e ~q2/2, (A.1)

where H,(x) are Hermite polynomials. We are interested in the functional integral
over a finite euclidean time 0 ~< • ~< t,

1.: exp{-jo'd"[( )'+..o. },

where SO and St are extra actions on the boundaries which serve to impose the
desired boundary conditions. Inserting

f dqi~(~(0)-qi)f dqf6( @(t) - qf)

we get by a variety of standard methods

It= ~_, e-"~'f ~ dqie s°cq~l..(qi) f ~ dqfun(qf)e -s'[qf]. (A.3)

(In this expression, the zero point energy has been subtracted.) Inserting (A.1) and
doing the sum gives a gaussian in qi, qf, whose coefficient matrix is the inverse of
the Neumann function restricted to the boundaries [11, 31].
Eq. (A.3) exhibits the factorization of the two boundaries, but we would like to
express it in terms of the creation and annihilation operators A* and A, rather than
Hermite polynomials. Therefore we look for an operator V(At, S) satisfying

£ 1
dqu.tq)"' e -s[ql - ~ (OIA"V(A*,S)[O) (1.4)

for any given function S[q]. Using the Hermite polynomial generating function

£ ~nV.
n=0
("'~"exp{-Jo~qZ+(2wl'/2qz -"I
' u,(q)z"=--) ,z (A.~
turns the right-hand side of (1.4) into

(01e"V(A*, S)[0) = V(z, S). (A.6)

Therefore

V(A*,S)= (4.~)-V4f~dQ exp{-S[(2o.,)I/'Q] - ¼Q2 + QA*- ~(A*)2},

(A.7)
 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions 545

Fig. 3. The annulus is mapped into a rectangle. The inner boundary becomes the top.

where Q -= (2~)1/2q. In terms of this operator, (A.3) then becomes

I t = COl V(A, So)e ~'A*AV(A*, S,)IO), (A.8)

displaying the factorization of the two boundaries in a convenient form. Notice that
the position variable inside the boundary action S[q] is scaled by (2w) -1/2 in the
integral (A.7) for V(A*, S).
We now extend these formulae to the string by multiplying the separate oscillator
pieces. The conformal transformation (shown in fig. 3)

r + io = - l o g z

maps the annulus a ~ tz[ ~< 1 into a rectangle

0~<o~<2~r, O~r~t= - l o g a.

The external electromagnetic field interacts only with the boundaries r = 0, t.

Expanding the normal coordinate

= +
~[~,(r)e i"° + ~7~(r)e~'"], (A.9)
m=l

the interior action becomes

1 -". 0~ ~ 2 0~>/2 ]
Sint 47rolf "10 o

(A.IO)
m=l [ d r d'r
Writing
~ - ~-(~ + iX~m) (A.11)

gives 2D correctly normalized real oscillators for each frequency oa = m = 1, 2, 3. . . . .

546 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions

Now we consider the boundary action. The two relevant boundaries are r = 0,
r = t. If we describe them clockwise, they will have opposite charges. Let us consider
the ~--- t boundary alone, with a positive charge so o runs from 0 to 2rr. Then by
(3.4) with ¢ ~ o, the boundary action for a constant field-strength is

-i r2~r v 0
S,=--/0
4~ra'
doF~ (o,r ) ~o ~'( °' ,r). (A.12)

Substituting (A.9) gives

D
St= E F,~ ~ m~(t)fm(t ). (A.13)

(,r = t is fixed on the boundary, so the argument could be dropped.)

We are now ready to construct the boundary operator (A.7). First we notice that
S t contained q scaled by (2~0)-1/2. Here oa = m, so rescaling each coordinate in
(A.13) gives
D

i,, v = l m = l

Eq. (A.1) and therefore also (A.7) require that the coordinate Q be real. We
therefore first associate creation operators Bm
~* and C~* with the coordinates ~ and
X~m in (A.11), and then combine them by

A~,, = f~ ( B f -T-iC~*) . (A.14)

The last term of (A.7) then becomes

D o0 D
--½~.~ E [(Bm~t)2W(cm~t)2]=-E ~A~tA~-*m
m = l p.=l m = l /.t=l

- (ArIA-t) (1.15t

in vector notation. The complete operator (the product of (A.7) over all modes) in
this notation is

[,nI~I=1 (4¢rm)- n/2] f ~ b ~ e x p ( - ½ ( t~[F, ~b)-½( dT[~ )

+(Atl~)+(~IXt)-(AtlAt)}. (A.16)
Since only creation operators are present, everything commutes. We do the gaussian
 C G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions 547

functional integral, and evaluate the determinant by zeta-function regularization

log mI-J1 = limc (xm-D:) s

s o ds 1

= ~ ( 0 ) l o g x + 51 D~(
, 0)

=-½1ogx+.... (A.17)
There is one factor [det(1 + F)] -1 for each m, so we finally get

( D ~=1
v(a*'F~")=[det(l + F)]'/2exp~,~=l£ ~, A~,(1-F]
rn~ 1+Flay A~* / (A.18)
-mj"

This displays how the left and right moving modes A~,, are coupled together by
boundary reflections. For F~ = 0 it reduces to a formula of [22]. This fixes the
numerical constant dropped in (A.17), since they derived their formula from open
string unitarity.
To see the physical significance of this operator, consider an annulus e - ' ~< Iz [ ~<1,
with N open string tachyons of momenta Kj entering the outer boundary at z = e'°:
as in fig. 3. The inner boundary contains only a charge interacting with the external
field F~,. Then (A.18) is the contribution of the inner boundary. The corresponding
operator V(A, So) for the outer boundary is obtained by taking [32]
N
So = -i E K~(oj, O) (A.19)
j=l

instead of (A.12). By (A.8) the interior of the world sheet contributes

e -'°t(L°+L°) , (A.20)
with
O oo
Lo+L0= ~ ~ [mlA~m*A~. (A.21)
/*=1 m = - o 0

The Teichmiiller parameter (inner radius) is e-t. Including the integration measure
from the ghosts [19, 31] gives the amplitude

8 Kj fo dte2tfl (1-e-2"t)2<OIV(A'S°)e-'°tfL°+E°)V(At'F)IO>"
n=l

(A.22)

After expanding the ghost partition function, we can do the t integral to get a series
548 C.G. Callan et aL / String loop corrections to fl-functions

Fig. 4. Factorization of fig. 3. Open string particles go via a closed string propagator into the vacuum.

of poles corresponding to all levels I g') of a zero-momentum closed string. Their

residues will be factorized

E (0[ V(A, So)I~(At))(a'M~)-I(~(A)[ V(A*, F)[0). (A.23)

,p

Here I g'(A*)) is the oscillator wave function of a closed string state of mass M~,
[33].
Eq. (A.23) is shown graphically in fig. 4. The solid lines are open string tachyons,
the wavy line is a closed string. The blob is the amplitude for the closed string to
disappear into the vacuum. If the closed string state has zero mass this can really
occur, giving a divergence in (A.23). Taking [33]

(g'(A)l = (0]A~A~a, (A.24)

eq. (A.18) gives the graviton-to-vacuum transition induced by the applied field-
strength F..,

[det(1 + F ) ] 1 / 2 (~1 - F. ) , (A.25)

whose implications are discussed in the text.

The method can be generalized in several ways. The functional integral (A.16)
was gaussian because the background gauge field strength was constant and the
boundary condition was linear. An arbitrary open string background, corresponds
to a nonlinear boundary action and leads, by (A.7), to a nontrivial 1D field theory
on the boundary. The oscillator identity (A.7) can also be extended to fermions and
used to factorize the BRST ghosts [34], a particularly effective way to get at fl*.
With the standard boundary conditions, c ÷ = c and b++ = b__, the ghosts con-
tribute to (A.18) a factor
 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to fl-functions 549
In this expression,

C±((I, T) = ~ +e m(~'+io)
c ,?,

b ++(o', T) =
_ _
~ b
.Z
e
+m(~'+io)
_

, (A.27)

are the Fourier expansions of the BRST ghost and antighost fields of the closed
string. They satisfy the algebra

(b+, c+ } = ~m+n,0 (A.28)

and the m < 0 modes are creation operators.

The amplitude for any closed string state to go into the vacuum is

(kO(A, b, c)l V(A t, F ) V ( b , c)[0), (A.29)

where (q'[ is its oscillator wave function. The relevant wave functions, including
ghost content, have been calculated by Siegel and Zwiebach [33]. Let us call h,, the
zero mass state whose wave function is pure matter and q the zero mass state whose
wave function is pure ghost:

('l'h."l = ½(OIA~AL~,
(ff'n I = (01 (b~c~ - c~b~). (A.30)

Now the sigma model beta functions are conventionally defined by their lagrangian
counterterms [4], without reference to the physical graviton and dilaton which are
mixtures of h~, and 7) [33]. The composite fields corresponding to the wave
functions (A.30) can be deduced from the reduction formulae [8] at z = e -(t÷jo) = 0.

Oz X" 0~ X" (0)10) = (4,~) - 1AftA ~t110), (A.31)

O a O a [ b + + c - ( O ) -[-b _£+(O)][O)=4(b+_lC_lq-b_xc+_x)[O ) . (A.32)

As shown by fig. 4 or (A.23), the beta functions multiPlY the operator insertions on
the 1.h.s. of (A.31) and (A.32). It is plausible that the ghost operator bosonizes into
v ~ R (2), but we are unable to give a clear derivation of this last step. Accepting it,
the string loop contributes, by (2.1) and (A.18),

fl~' c~ ~det(1 + F ) , (A.33)

in agreement with the argument in the text.

550 C.G. Callan et al. / String loop corrections to B-functions

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