On a patch with , use worldsheet diffeomorphisms and worldsheet supersymmetry to fix and . The Virasoro constraints and superconformal current constraints then determine the longitudinal modes by the displayed transverse bilinears. In the Ramond sector, reduction of the fermionic zero modes includes the zero-mode Dirac constraint; fixing only nonzero modes does not complete the reduction. Eight transverse bosons and eight transverse fermions remain in the critical ten-dimensional RNS string.
The RNS string adds worldsheet Majorana fermions to the coordinate fields . The new fields are spinors on the worldsheet but vectors under the target Lorentz group; this distinction matters when interpreting their oscillator states. In a flat target, a convenient Lorentzian convention for the free gauge-fixed action is
where are two-dimensional gamma matrices. The bosonic and fermionic kinetic terms are related by worldsheet supersymmetry. Before fixing local worldsheet supersymmetry, one introduces a worldsheet gravitino along with the worldsheet metric. After superconformal gauge fixing, the residual matter constraints are the Virasoro constraints and the constraints generated by the superconformal current .
Each real worldsheet Majorana fermion contributes to the chiral central charge, while each coordinate contributes one. The reparameterization bc system contributes , and fixing local worldsheet supersymmetry also produces commuting superconformal ghosts of weights , with central charge . Thus
In light-cone gauge in string theory there are eight physical transverse coordinate fields and eight transverse worldsheet Majorana fermions.
On the doubled spatial interval of an open string, the two allowed fermionic periodicities are
They arise from the relative signs of the left-right fermion gluing conditions at the two ends. Thus the Ramond sector has integer-mode oscillators , including , and the Neveu–Schwarz sector has half-integer oscillators , , without zero modes. In either sector,
A closed string has independent left- and right-moving periodicities, giving four sector choices rather than two.
The Ramond zero-mode Clifford algebra is
Hence its ground states carry a Spinor representation of the Lorentz group. The zero-mode supercurrent constraint reduces on a ground state to the Dirac equation . In the Neveu–Schwarz sector the oscillator vacuum instead carries a scalar representation. Consequently the open string NS sector describes spacetime bosons, while the R sector describes spacetime fermions. Exciting a target-vector oscillator does not change this statistics assignment.
The string intercepts follow from the transverse zero-point energy. Per boson the integer-mode contribution is . Per fermion it is the negative of the corresponding half-sum. Since , the eight transverse pairs give
Thus , , and the open string mass formula is . This distinguishes the lowest states explicitly:
The supersymmetric GSO projection keeps odd oscillator fermion number in the NS sector. Defining so that the NS vacuum has , its projector is
It removes the scalar tachyon and keeps the massless vector. In the R sector, fermion parity contains the zero-mode chirality operator, so one may write
Here counts nonzero-mode fermionic excitations. On the ground states, this keeps one Majorana-Weyl spinor chirality: 16 real covariant components, or eight on-shell polarizations after the Dirac equation. The projected massless open-string states are an eight-polarization gauge vector and an eight-polarization gaugino. The compatible projected tower exhibits spacetime supersymmetry; unprojected worldsheet supersymmetry by itself did not eliminate the tachyon or equalize these massless counts.
For a closed string, both chiral zero-mode constraints must hold:
This shifted closed-string level matching is particularly important in the mixed sectors. The lowest states and their spacetime nature are as follows.
For type IIA superstring theory, the two R sector ground-state chiralities are opposite. The Ramond–Ramond potentials can be represented by , with transverse counts . The two mixed-sector gravitinos have opposite chiralities, and the ten-dimensional theory is nonchiral. For type IIB superstring theory, the two R sector chiralities agree; the Ramond–Ramond potentials are , with self-dual five-form field strength, giving . Its two gravitinos have the same chirality. Thus both projected type II theories have 128 massless bosonic and 128 massless fermionic polarizations and no tachyon, while their chiralities and form spectra differ.
If unoriented open strings are included in the complete theory, the supersymmetric example is type I string theory. Worldsheet orientation reversal projects the closed type IIB superstring theory spectrum and identifies the two mixed sectors; the surviving closed fields include the graviton, dilaton, a Ramond–Ramond potential , and one gravitino and dilatino. The open states form vector and gaugino multiplets with Chan-Paton factors; tadpole and anomaly cancellation select . This is an additional orientation projection, not part of the GSO projection itself. The heterotic string instead pairs one supersymmetric chiral side with a bosonic chiral side carrying an internal gauge sector; it does not have a Ramond choice on both sides.
The Polyakov action has independent worldsheet metric and embedding fields . Varying the metric before imposing a gauge gives
Worldsheet diffeomorphisms and Weyl transformations allow conformal gauge locally. The Weyl factor then cancels out of the classical action, leaving
These are free two-dimensional scalar fields, but the surviving metric equations require
Equivalently, and . Gauge fixing does not license dropping these Virasoro constraints.
For an ordinary open string, the boundary conditions relate the two chiral sectors. With , their independent Fourier generators are
The classical oscillator Poisson brackets give the classical Virasoro constraint algebra
Thus they are first-class constraints. In the quantum theory one applies normal ordering to the product and uses . The oscillator commutator gives
For example, for the extra vacuum term is . This exhibits the Virasoro central extension rather than concealing it in a classical constraint equation. The matter central charge is ; the worldsheet ghost fields have charge . Quantum consistency sets and the string intercept to one.
In old covariant string quantization the physical-state Virasoro conditions for an open string are
Physical string states are then identified modulo physical null string states. One does not impose both positive and negative generators as annihilation conditions: their central extension would obstruct that prescription. The resulting null-state quotient of a string agrees with the transverse light-cone spectrum at nonzero momentum.
At , the oscillator vacuum is a single spacetime scalar field with : the bosonic tachyon. At , write . The zero-mode equation gives , and gives . The null descendant identifies . This leaves 24 physical polarizations of a massless gauge vector.
At , use the level-two open-string polarization decomposition
The mass is . The oscillator commutators give all the nontrivial positive-mode conditions:
Higher positive modes annihilate this level. To see the quotient explicitly, the 25 transverse-parameter null states , with , shift
The additional level-two scalar Virasoro null state shifts
Substitution into the two physical equations verifies the null-state conditions; the second residual is . Because is timelike, these null shifts span all components of , so choose a representative with . The physical conditions then say and . In the rest frame this is a traceless second-rank tensor in 25 spatial dimensions, with polarizations. The light-cone basis independently gives states and symmetric states . Hence
For the fermionic extension, an explicit convention prevents ambiguity in the signs. Keep worldsheet signature and use
Take and the constant parameter to be real Grassmann-odd Majorana components, with . Put . Apart from the common factor , the combined Lagrangian is
The rigid transformations can be written
or, in components,
For the part, the bosonic variation is , while the fermionic variation is . Anticommuting the constant parameter past the fermion is essential in the second term. The first terms cancel. The other chiral component works in the same way, giving the chiral proof of rigid worldsheet supersymmetry
Thus the action is invariant off shell up to a boundary term. The transformation is a genuine supersymmetry: on its commutator for parameters is the translation
On the same translation follows using and ; the remaining cross terms are proportional to these Dirac equations. This is on-shell closure of rigid worldsheet supersymmetry. On a surface with boundary, compatible endpoint conditions must make the boundary flux vanish. On a compact worldsheet, a constant parameter must preserve the spin structure; the local identity alone does not make a constant transformation compatible with every antiperiodic sector.
The fermions contribute to the worldsheet stress-energy tensor and produce a fermionic superconformal current. In holomorphic normalization with ,
The free-field contractions give and conformal weight for , where . Consequently the modes obey the N=1 super-Virasoro algebra
Dropping the central terms gives the classical graded constraint algebra. Integer gives the Ramond sector; half-integer gives the Neveu–Schwarz sector. In the displayed conformal-plane convention in the Ramond sector. Shifting to the Ramond vacuum-normal-ordered zero mode gives the usual Ramond supercurrent zero-mode square .
Rigid symmetry of matter already supplies these currents, but promoting their vanishing to new gauge constraints requires coupling to worldsheet supergravity and varying its worldsheet gravitino. In superconformal gauge one retains . The fermionic current constraints and their physical-state conditions extend the bosonic Virasoro conditions. The ghost charges are , so cancellation with gives the critical dimension of the RNS superstring ; the NS and Ramond intercepts are respectively and zero. This distinguishes the global supersymmetry established above from its locally gauged string completion.
Take on the strip . Varying the Grassmann-odd worldsheet Majorana fermions gives , and, up to the orientation of the strip boundary, the surface term
At each endpoint it vanishes if with , with the same relation on variations. A common sign can be absorbed by redefining one chiral field, so set . Since and , the second endpoint imposes . Equal endpoint signs give the periodic Ramond sector, and opposite endpoint signs give the antiperiodic Neveu–Schwarz sector:
These gluing choices preserve the Neumann-endpoint worldsheet supersymmetry conditions and give integer or half-integer worldsheet Majorana fermion modes, respectively.
First fix a normalization issue in the original PDF. With its stated canonical string oscillator algebra, the standard superconformal current mode is
without the printed factor . To check the Ramond supercurrent zero-mode square directly, pair positive and negative integer modes:
The zero-mode Clifford relations give . Different anticommute, and so do with the zero-mode term. The two same-sign terms in vanish by antisymmetry of the fermions and symmetry of the bosonic product. The cross terms give
The second term comes from commuting through , so the frequency factor is essential. Therefore
Here uses vacuum-annihilating Ramond normal ordering; its string intercept is zero. A plane-to-cylinder central shift must be included consistently if a different zero-mode convention is used.
For the mode actually printed, the algebra instead gives . Already the oscillator-free term gives , whereas . Thus the requested identity is not valid with both that prefactor and the supplied string oscillator algebra. Removing the prefactor gives the identity just derived. Renaming as would fix this isolated equality but would spoil the usual Virasoro normalization and the subsequent mass formula. We use the standard normalized modes in the remaining physical constraints; their vanishing is unaffected by a common nonzero rescaling.
The RNS string physical-state conditions in the two sectors are
The last condition is the fermionic zero-mode constraint; its square implies the Ramond mass-shell condition. Physical null string states are quotiented. Matter central charge is , while the reparameterization worldsheet ghost fields and superconformal ghosts contribute . Thus is the critical dimension of the RNS superstring, with and .
To solve the constraints, choose , so , and work on a patch with . In light-cone gauge in string theory fix all nonzero and all to zero. For the Ramond sector, the printed restriction to nonzero fermion modes is not by itself complete: one must also reduce the longitudinal fermionic zero modes using the zero-mode supersymmetry constraint. The usual reduced light-cone description sets the remaining to zero as well and retains the transverse Clifford algebra. Covariantly this reduction is the Dirac equation on the ground-state particle polarization; it is not an extra unconstrained canonical string oscillator.
With this reduction the string oscillator generators have the form
Repeated runs over the eight transverse directions. The coefficient in comes from the fermion worldsheet stress tensor ; for , positive and negative combine to give the occupation energy . Thus the light-cone super-Virasoro constraints are explicitly solved by
Here is in the NS sector and zero in the R sector. The zero-mode equation says . All longitudinal excitations are consequently determined by transverse bilinears. The critical dimension and string intercepts are necessary for the resulting quantum theory to preserve the target Lorentz algebra.
The frequency-weighted Neveu–Schwarz level operator is
The PDF's displayed number operator omits the fermion frequency weights and the term. With the stated anticommutators that cannot be a level operator: it would assign no level to the first fermionic excitation. The bosonic term already includes its frequency through , whereas the fermionic term must include its frequency explicitly.
One independent way to obtain the string intercept is the transverse zero-point energy. Each periodic boson contributes . Each antiperiodic real fermion contributes , with the minus sign due to fermionic normal ordering. For example a common exponential cutoff gives
Subtracting the local divergent terms leaves , so the NS string intercept is . In the Ramond sector the integer fermions instead contribute per component and cancel the bosonic contribution, giving .
The unprojected NS sector oscillator vacuum has and
It is a spacetime scalar tachyon. The first excitation has and is massless, with eight vector particle polarizations. Covariantly its particle polarization obeys modulo the longitudinal null particle polarization, leaving the same eight degrees of freedom.
The R sector oscillator vacuum is also massless, but it is degenerate because . The operators give the target Clifford algebra, and becomes . At nonzero null momentum this Dirac equation leaves sixteen unprojected on-shell spinor states. Equivalently the eight transverse zero modes give the sixteen-dimensional spin representation of . Thus the Ramond ground state describes spacetime fermions, not a single scalar oscillator vacuum.
To define the GSO projection explicitly, let count excited NS fermions and give its vacuum even parity. Then
It retains odd fermion number, removes the tachyon, and retains the eight massless vector particle polarizations. In the Ramond sector let be transverse chirality and count nonzero-mode fermions. Choose one consistent chirality sign and use
Each operator squares to itself. At the ground level retains one eight-dimensional spinor chirality, so the retained spectrum has eight massless bosonic and eight massless fermionic states. The parity convention can instead assign the NS vacuum odd parity and write a plus projector; the retained states are identical.
Equality continues at every mass level. Let count , suppressing common momentum and endpoint-label factors, and set . The projected string oscillator generating functions are
The Ramond factor eight follows because either chirality projector selects eight ground states for every nonzero-oscillator parity. The Jacobi abstruse identity makes the bracket equal to , so
This proves level-by-level equality of bosonic and fermionic multiplicities. The appropriate spacetime supercharge from an RNS spin field relates the two sectors; the projection ensures that it acts within the retained state space. These sector and chirality conventions agree with the primary superstring lecture notes. Equal total counts alone are not the definition of the projection; they follow from the stated parity selection and the string oscillator identity.
Take with coordinate zero equal to and coordinate one to . In the supplied representation set
They satisfy the Clifford algebra . For anticommuting spinor components and an ordinary matrix , relabelling the two summed indices gives
Now , whereas and are symmetric. Therefore the Majorana Grassmann bilinear interchange yields
These signs require fermionic, Grassmann-odd fields; commuting spinors would have the opposite interchange signs.
In flat conformal gauge, suppress the common factor and write the combined density as . The supersymmetry variation including its odd parameter is an even derivation. From we obtain
Also , so interchanging odd spinors gives . The two density variations, with target contractions understood, are therefore
In the second term the symmetric second derivative annihilates the antisymmetric part of . Using now gives the exact off-shell identity
Thus the action is invariant when this boundary flux vanishes and the transformation preserves the field boundary conditions, for example with suitable falloff or compatible supersymmetric endpoint conditions. On a spatial circle, periodic fields admit the constant parameter; antiperiodic fermions with periodic bosons require the local superconformal treatment, since a nonzero constant parameter would make the boson variation antiperiodic. The constant parameter and ordinary derivatives describe rigid supersymmetry in flat gauge; a locally supersymmetric curved-worldsheet formulation includes the worldsheet gravitino. The result is the rigid worldsheet supersymmetry boundary term without using field equations.
For the commutator on , keep the order of the odd parameters:
For the fermion, the order is equally important. Moving through both odd factors in incurs two minus signs. Consequently
To check the spinor matrix explicitly, set , , with all four components anticommuting and monomials ordered . Then
Direct multiplication gives . Hence
Variation of the fermion action gives the Dirac equation . On this equation the second term vanishes, proving
This is on-shell closure of rigid worldsheet supersymmetry; the action's invariance was off shell, but its fermionic transformation algebra closes in this field content only on shell.
The associated superconformal current is proportional to , of conformal weight . Its fermionic modes extend the stress-tensor generators to the N=1 super-Virasoro algebra:
The modes are half-integral in the Neveu–Schwarz sector and integral in the Ramond sector. Their anticommutator giving a Virasoro generator is the conformal-mode counterpart of the translation commutator just derived. Ten coordinate bosons and ten Majorana fermions give matter central charge , canceled by the usual reparametrization and superconformal ghosts in the critical RNS string.
The free equations of motion are and , hence
Thus the superconformal current is holomorphic. Differentiating the boson OPE gives . The double contraction in is consequently , while the single contractions combine into twice the full stress tensor. Therefore
The leading coefficient equals for .
With the standard string oscillator algebra and , pairing positive and negative modes gives . This is the vacuum-normal-ordered Ramond sector generator , so . Rescaling the superconformal current rescales its square quadratically; its normalization cannot be ignored when comparing it with a fixed Virasoro generator.