Null Strings Gauged and Reloaded, I: Null Strings Have Carroll-Weyl Gauge Symmetry

Abstract

Null strings, strings with Carrollian worldsheets, are traditionally described by the Isberg-Lindström-Sundborg-Theodoridis (ILST) action, which is obtained via a tensionless limit of standard tensile strings. In a recent work, we observed that the ILST action enjoys an overlooked partial-gauge symmetry whose existence calls into question the consistency of standard null-string analyses found in the literature. In this paper, we show that the Carrollian geometry provides us with two Weyl scaling options, in contrast to a single Weyl scaling available for the ordinary tensile string worldsheet. Defining the null string theory by the action that realizes the two Carroll-Weyl scalings as well as the 2D diffeomorphisms as local (gauge) symmetries, we construct the new null string action. We show that the ILST action is obtained after fixing one of the two Carroll-Weyl scalings of the action that we construct, and that the residual part of this symmetry is precisely the overlooked partial-gauge symmetry. We hence clarify the Carroll-geometric origin of the overlooked symmetry and pave the way for a consistent quantization of null strings.