Spectral Fractional Bosonic Strings: Exact Polyakov Measure and the Critical Dimension

Abstract

Fractional Laplacians encode anomalous scaling and covariant nonlocal response in quantum matter and holographic boundary systems. We place the corresponding scalar spectral theory on a dynamical closed worldsheet. A metric-dependent intertwiner maps the fractional quadratic form to that of $D$ free bosons, while its zeta Jacobian changes the matter determinant weight from $D$ to $sD$. The prime-determinant transformation includes the zero-mode area factor and determines both the moduli density and the Weyl coefficient $c_{\rm det}=sD$. Weyl cancellation therefore selects $D_\ast=26/s$. On the integer critical locus $1\leq D\leq26$, $N=26-D$ spectator bosons turn the residual determinant into a local critical CFT. Its fixed-area genus-$g$ vacuum measure is that of 26 free bosons, its torus trace is modular invariant, its plumbing channels are state resolved, and its BRST charge is nilpotent. The $D$ distinguished coordinates remain spectral composites; their pullback yields the Koba--Nielsen amplitudes and massless vertex conditions. Target backgrounds coupled to this distinguished sector retain the ordinary one-loop tensor beta functions, with dilaton deficit $sD-26$ and the corresponding string-frame action. Worldsheet gravity thus turns the fractional exponent into a quantum-geometric consistency parameter.