Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Theory
Scientific paper
1998-01-08
Nucl.Phys. B521 (1998) 202-216
Physics
High Energy Physics
High Energy Physics - Theory
17 pages, uses PHYZZX, no figures
Scientific paper
10.1016/S0550-3213(98)00203-X
In perturbative quantum field theory the limit of compactification on an almost light-like circle has recently been shown to be plagued by divergences. We argue that the light-like limit for M-theory probably is free of such divergences due to, among others, the existence of the wrapping modes of the membranes. To illustrate this, we consider superstring theory compactified on an almost light-like circle. Specifically, we compute a one-loop four-point amplitude in type II theory. As is well known, if the external states have vanishing momenta in the compact dimension, the divergence in the light-like limit is even stronger than in field theory. However, in the case of present interest, where these external momenta are non-vanishing, there is a subtle compensation and the resulting amplitude has a well-defined and finite light-like limit. The net effect of taking the light-like limit is to replace the integration over one of the moduli of the 4-punctured torus by a sum over a discrete modulus taking values in a finite lattice on the torus. The same result can also be obtained from a suitably "Wick rotated" amplitude computed directly with a compact light-like circle.
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