6533b831fe1ef96bd1299047

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Kaluza-Klein origin for the superstring tension

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The natural configuration space of a string in a background antisymmetric tensor potential is not loop space, but a principal U(1) bundle over loop space. This allows a Kaluza-Klein--like interpretation of the string tension as momentum along the U(1) fiber, and a similar interpretation is possible for a {ital p}-dimensional object. The higher-dimensional'' action incorporating this momentum as a dynamical variable is given for a {ital p}-dimensional supersymmetric extended object, in a general supergravity background. Its relevance, for a flat background, to classical anomalies'' in the supersymmetry algebra is explained.