Critical behavior in two-dimensional quantum gravity and equations of motion of the string

Abstract

We show how consistent quantization determines the renormalization of couplings in a quantum field theory coupled to gravity in two dimensions. The special status of couplings corresponding to conformally invariant matter is discussed. In string theory, where the dynamical degree of freedom of the two-dimensional metric plays the role of time in target space, these renormalization group equations are themselves the classical equations of motion. Time independent solutions, like classical vacuua, correspond to the situation in which matter is conformally invariant. Time dependent solutions, like tunnelling configurations between vacuua, correspond to special trajectories in theory space. We discuss an example of such a trajectory in the space containing the c < 1 minimal models. We also discuss the connection between this work and the recent attempts to construct non-perturbative string theories based on matrix models.