QUANTUM GEOMETRODYNAMICS OF THE OPEN TOPOLOGICAL MEMBRANE AND STRING MODULI SPACE

We show that by coupling a three-dimensional Chern-Simons theory to (2+1)-dimensional gravity through an arbitrarily small F2 term, one can obtain integrals of conformal-field-theory amplitudes over moduli space. The conformal anomaly appears as an induced gravitational Chern-Simons term. String-theory amplitudes can thus be obtained from three dimensions. © 1990 The American Physical Society.