MSc in Mathematical Oxford University

and Theoretical Physics Trinity 2025

String Theory II
Examples Sheet

Nicolás Mediato Díaz

June 1, 2025

Contents
Question 1: Free Fermion Description of the Heterotic String . . . . . . . 2

Question 2: Spin Connections and Killing Spinors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Question 3: Kähler Manifolds, Projective Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Question 4: Calabi-Yau Manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1
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Question 1: Free Fermion Description of the Heterotic

String

Consider the Vertex operator algebra generated for µ = 0, . . . , 9 by

• Xµ (z, z̄) be free bosonic fields (non-chiral)

• λA (z), A = 1, · · · , 32 be holomorphic world-sheet fermion fields with periodic
boundary conditions.
• ψ̃µ (z̄) be anti-holomorphic world-sheet fermion fields

The OPE algebra is thus

α′
X µ (z, z̄)X ν (0, 0) ∼ −η µν ln |z|2
2
1
λA (z)λB (0) ∼ δ AB
z
µ ν µν 1
ψ̃ (z)ψ̃ (0) ∼ η
z

1. Compute the OPEs T T and T̄ T̄ , where

1 1 A A
T (z) = − ′
∂Xµ ∂X µ − λ ∂λ
α 2
1 ¯ ¯ µ 1 µ¯
T̄ (z̄) = − ′ ∂X µ ∂X − ψ̃ ∂ ψ̃µ
α 2

2. Using bosonization of the left moving fermions λA show that this CFT is equivalent
to the 10d SO(32) heterotic string.
3. Construct in the fermionic description (i.e. using λA ) the massless states, taking
care of imposing a GSO projection on both left and right-moving sectors.
4. Choose now boundary conditions independently (periodic/antiperiodic) for the
λ in two sets of 16. Show that these fields realize a level 1 SO(16) × SO(16) current
A

algebra. Using bosonization, construct in terms of λA the current algebra that realizes
the 10d E8 × E8 heterotic string.

Let us split the stress-energy tensor into bosonic and fermionic contributions T (z) =
TX (z) + Tλ (z). Then starting with he bosonic part, the double contraction gives
1
TX (z)TX (w) ⊃ 〈∂X µ (z)∂X ν (w)〉〈∂Xµ (z)∂Xν (w)〉
α′2
! "2
1 α′ η µν ηµν 1 D
= ′2 − · 4
= ·
α 2 (z − w) 4 (z − w)4

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for D = 10, while the single contractions are

2 1
TX (z)TX (w) ⊃ ′
· · : ∂X µ (z)∂Xµ (w) :
α (z − w)2
2TX (w) ∂TX (w)
= 2
+
(z − w) z−w

Similarly, we use the result

δ AB δ AB
λA (z)λB (w) ∼ , ⇒ ∂λA (z)∂λB (w) ∼
z−w (z − w)3

to compute the double contraction

! "
1 #$ A % $ % 1# 1 1 1# 1 8
λ (z)λA (w) · ∂λA (z)∂λA (w) = · = =
4 A 4 A z − w (z − w)3 4 A (z − w) 4 (z − w)4

and single contractions

1# 1 1# 1
· : ∂λA (z)∂λA (w) :∼ · : ∂λA (z)∂λA (w) :
4 A z−w 4 A z−w

which we discard (I believe it can be argued that this is in fact regular), and also

1# 1 A A 1 # λA (z)∂λA (z) 1 # ∂λA (z)∂λA (z)

· : λ (z)∂λ (w) := +
4 A (z − w)2 4 A (z − w)2 4 A (z − w)

2Tλ (w) ∂Tλ (w)

which contributes to the expected (z−w)2
+ z−w
term. This gives the final result

26/2 2T (w) ∂T (w)

T (z)T (w) ∼ 4
+ 2
+
(z − w) (z − w) z−w

The computation of the antiholomorphic OPE is similar, with that of the fermionic
part changing only by the central charge, which is now cψ = 5, giving

15/2 2T̄ (w) ∂ T̄ (w)

T̄ (z)T̄ (w) ∼ 4
+ 2
+
(z − w) (z − w) z−w

Th bosonization procedure demands that we group the fermions λA into 16 complex

fermions:
1
ψ i (z) = √ (λ2i−1 (z) + iλ2i (z)), i = 1, . . . , 16
2
satisfying
δ ij
ψ i (z)ψ j† (w) ∼
z−w
Each complex fermion ψ i (z) can be bosonized as:
i (z) i (z)
ψ i (z) =: eiH :, ψ i† (z) =: e−iH :

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where H i (z) are chiral bosons satisfying: H i (z)H j (w) ∼ −δ ij ln(z − w) let us construct
the operatiors
Vp (z) =: eip·H(z) :
where p = (p1 , . . . , p16 ) ∈ R16 is a momentum vector in the space of chiral bosons. For
these vertex operators to be mutually local, the momentum vectors p must lie in an even
self-dual lattice of rank 16. There are only two such lattices:
• ΓE8 ⊕ ΓE8 (giving rise to E8 × E8 )
• ΓSO(32) (the weight lattice of Spin(32)/Z2 ), which is the correct one to consider in
this case, as it is known that 32 Majorana–Weyl fermions (with consistent GSO
projection) generate the SO(32) current algebra

The vertex operators Vp (z) =: eip·H(z) : correspond to states in the weight lattice of SO(32).
Therefore, the spectrum of the theory includes a non-Abelian gauge group Spin(32)/Z2
which is exactly the gauge group of the SO(32) heterotic string. We also see that the
condition for conformal consistency is satisfied, as the total central charge for the bosonic
left movers is 26, corresponding to the critical value of the bosonic string.
Let us now construct the massless spectrum of the SO(32) heterotic string using the
fermionic description. The total mass of a string state is determined by α′ M 2 = L0 + L̄0 −2
so massless states have L0 = L̄0 = 1
Let us start with the left-moving sector: 10 bosons X µ (z) with c = 10 and 32 fermions
λA (z) with c = 16. We can treat λA (z) in either NS or R sector. In the NS Sector, the
ground state |0〉NS is a scalar with conformal weight h = −1/2 (after normal ordering) and
the lowest excitations are λA−1/2 |0〉, of conformal weight +1/2, so total h = − 2 + 2 = 0 (but
1 1

this is a vacuum, and unphysical without momentum insertions). Adding a left-moving

µ
excitation: α−1 |0〉 (from X µ ), contributes +1. In the R sector, the vacuum is a spinor of
SO(32), weight h = 0 Thus, no oscillator is needed for massless states, since L0 = 0 at
the ground state. But this gives L0 = 0 < 1, i.e. massive, not allowed for the massless
spectrum.
To ensure a modular-invariant and gauge-consistent theory, the heterotic string im-
poses a GSO projection that retains only states with even fermion number in the left-
moving sector. This means that the single-fermion states λA
−1/2 |0〉, which have odd fermion
number, are projected out and do not appear in the physical spectrum. So the massless
states in the left-moving sector are:
µ
α−1 |0〉 ⊗ anything and λA B
−1/2 λ−1/2 |0〉, A ∕= B,

The right-moving sector contains 10 bosons X µ (z̄) and 10 fermions ψ̃ µ (z̄). The GSO
projection is exactly as in type II superstrings.
In the NS Sector the ground state is |0〉NS , with energy − 12 , and the excitations are

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µ µ
ψ̃−1/2 |0〉, with energy + 12 , so we need to add ψ̃−1/2 (L̄0 = 12 ). So massless states come
µ
from ψ̃−1/2 |0〉. The GSO projection in this sector requires that physical states contain an
µ
odd number of worldsheet fermionic excitations, which ensures that the ψ̃−1/2 |0〉 states
are retained.

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