Misconception between Bosonic String and Susperstring in RNS Formalism

There are many common misconceptions (or carelessness) that amateur string readers have. One of those is that bosonic string theory on worldsheet is for bosons, and superstring theory on superspace is for fermions (well, only fermions). This is technically wrong. Superstring theory has both bosonic sector (with Neveu-Schwarz - NS- boundary condition) and fermionic sector (with Ramond boundary condition). However, the NS bosonic sector (which uses the same $X^\mu$ worldsheet of the free bosonic theory of D=26) of Superstring is different from the bosonic theory in D=26. One of the things that differentiate the two is the presence of an extra oscillator in the former.  NS bosonic sector does not have the critical dimension $26$ but $10$.

In superstring theory, we add an extra wave-function $\psi^\mu$ which is related to $X^\mu$ by world-sheet supersymmetry (space-time SUSY is used in GS formalism). The fermionic sector (of course of Superstring) is also ghosts-free at $D=10$. And the Virasoro algebra of the free bosonic theory is replaced by the Super-Virasoro algebra.

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3 Responses to Misconception between Bosonic String and Susperstring in RNS Formalism

  1. Anonymous says:

    How $X^\mu$ and $\psi^\mu$ are connected by susy? Sorry, i haven't read string theory.

  2. Anonymous, I suggest you to learn string theory a bit to understand the connection between both. You would also need Supersymmetry by your side.

  3. Hi, it is great work, loved it.

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