Wormholes in string theory

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Abstract
We discuss the wormhole effective interactions in string theory, thought of as a sum over two-dimensional field theories on different world sheets. The effective interactions are calculated in the "dilute wormhole approximation," initially by considering the Green's functions on higher-genus Riemann surfaces, and then by calculating the effect of a complete basis of wave functions on scattering amplitudes for a surface with a boundary. The sum over wormholes is equivalent to having a world sheet of trivial topology and summing over different space-time and matter-field backgrounds. To leading order these consist of the massless fluctuations, since the tachyon cancels out when a sum is done over different spin structures going through the wormhole. In this way we recover quantized general relativity as an effective theory, from a sum over field theories on higher-genus Riemann surfaces.

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