The Interacting W3W_3 String

We present a procedure for computing gauge-invariant scattering amplitudes in the $W_3$ string, and use it to calculate three-point and four-point functions. We show that non-vanishing scattering amplitudes necessarily involve external physical states with excitations of ghosts as well as matter fields. The crossing properties of the four-point functions are studied, and it is shown that the duality of the Virasoro string amplitudes generalises in the $W_3$ string, with different sets of intermediate states being exchanged in different channels. We also exhibit a relation between the scattering amplitudes of the $W_3$ string and the fusion rules of the Ising model.Comment: (Revised version), 26 pages, Plain Tex, CTP TAMU-86/92, KUL-TF-92/4

Anomaly Freedom and Realisations for Super-W3W_3 Strings

We construct new multi-field realisations of the $N=2$ super-$W_3$ algebra, which are important for building super-$W_3$ string theories. We derive the structure of the ghost vacuum for such theories, and use the result to calculate the intercepts. These results determine the conditions for physical states in the super-$W_3$ string theory.Comment: 22 page

Unfinished Business: Are Today’s P2P Networks Liable for Copyright Infringement?

In June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster Ltd., a case that asked whether peer-to-peer networks may be held liable for facilitating the illegal distribution of music over the internet. The music industry petitioned the Supreme Court to settle the disagreement between the circuit courts over the standard of liability for aiding in copyright infringement. The case was based on a clash between the protection of technological innovation and the protection of artistic works. This iBrief examines the circuit split and the Grokster opinion and discusses the questions of liability left unresolved by the Supreme Court. It argues that further clarification of the Sony rule is still needed in order to encourage the proliferation of legitimate peer-to-peer networks by protecting their services while discouraging illegitimate file-sharing activities

Souvenirs De Guerre: Memories of War

Major Harry Pople is one of the few junior officers to have written a detailed account of his service as a platoon commander in Italy. Originally written for the journal of the Royal 22nd Regiment, La Citadelle, his memoirs are presented as a commentary on more official accounts

25th Dynasty

The era of the 25th Dynasty during the eighth and seventh centuries BCE witnessed the annexation of Egypt by kings from the neighboring land of Kush. The phrase “Twenty-fifth Dynasty” may therefore refer to either this family of royals, the state they commanded, or the historical period of their rule, but in each case research has consistently focused on the regime’s foreign aspect and its possible effects. The sequence of discovery has also proven especially consequential: not only have sources known first to scholarship shaped the interpretation of evidence found later, but the modern political contexts of those earliest discoveries have left a lasting and often misleading impression upon subsequent understanding of the period. As a result, fundamental assumptions made by scholars during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been drawn into question during the twenty-first century through a reevaluation of that evidence, particularly in debates related to the dynasty’s origins, chronology, and statecraft

The Complete Spectrum of the WNW_N String

We obtain the complete physical spectrum of the $W_N$ string, for arbitrary $N$. The $W_N$ constraints freeze $N-2$ coordinates, while the remaining coordinates appear in the currents only {\it via} their energy-momentum tensor. The spectrum is then effectively described by a set of ordinary Virasoro-like string theories, but with a non-critical value for the central charge and a discrete set of non-standard values for the spin-2 intercepts. In particular, the physical spectrum of the $W_N$ string includes the usual massless states of the Virasoro string. By looking at the norms of low-lying states, we find strong indications that all the $W_N$ strings are unitary.Comment: 28 page