The Quantized Fermionic String

Abstract

The fermionic string is quantized analogously to the bosonic string, though this time leading to a critical dimension d = 10. We first quantize in lightcone gauge and construct the spectrum. To remove the tachyon one has to perform the so-called GSO projection, which guarantees space-time supersymmetry of the ten-dimensional theory. There are two possible space-time supersymmetric GSO projectionswhich result in the type IIA and the type IIB superstring. We also present the covariant path integral quantization. The chapter closes with an appendix on spinors in d dimensions. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.