Proper length of a string ($L(t)=\int \sqrt{h_{\sigma \sigma }}d\sigma$)

On a spacelike constant-target-time slice, integrate the induced spatial line element to obtain the geometric string length. It depends on the embedding and is distinct from the fundamental string length ${\ell }_s=\sqrt{{\alpha }^{\prime }}$. For transverse local motion, energy additionally includes the local Lorentz factor; the geometric length alone does not determine the total energy.