A solution of two-dimensional topological quantum gravity

Erik Verlinde, Herman Verlinde

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

156 Scopus citations

Abstract

We give a formulation of two-dimensional topological gravity without matter in terms of a supersymmetric conformally invariant field theory and derive a path integral expression for the physical amplitudes. A careful analysis of the contact terms of the physical operators reveals the presence of a non-commutative algebra, isomorphic to the Virasoro algebra. We show that this algebra completely determines all the amplitudes at arbitrary genus, which coincide with those of the one-matrix model at the k = 1 critical point.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)457-489
Number of pages33
JournalNuclear Physics, Section B
Volume348
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 21 1991

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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