The Dynamics of relativistic membranes. 2. Nonlinear waves and covariantly reduced membrane equations

Aug, 1993
10 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Lett.B 325 (1994) 359-365
e-Print:
Report number:
  • FREIBURG-THEP-93-19,
  • KA-THEP-5-93

Citations per year

19942001200820152022012345
Abstract: (Elsevier)
By explicitly eliminating all gauge degrees of freedom in the 3 + 1-gauge description of a classical relativistic (open) membrane moving in R 3 we derive a 2 + 1-dimensional nonlinear wave equation of Born-Infeld type for the graph z ( t , x , y ) which is invariant under the Poincaré group in four dimensions. Alternatively, we determine the world-volume of a membrane in a covariant way by the zeroes of a scalar field u ( t , x , y , z ) obeying a homogeneous Poincaré-invariant nonlinear wave-equation. This approach also gives a simple derivation of the nonlinear gas dynamic equation obtained in the light-cone gauge.
  • membrane model: relativistic
  • dimension: 4
  • quantum mechanics: nonlinear
  • dimension: 3
  • group theory: Poincare
  • light cone gauge