Strings in Singular Space-Times and Their Universal Gauge Theory.

We study the propagation of bosonic strings in singular target space-times. For describing this, we assume this target space to be the quotient of a smooth manifold M by a singular foliation $${{\mathcal {F}}}$$ on it. Using the technical tool of a gauge theory, we propose a smooth functional for this scenario, such that the propagation is assured to lie in the singular target on-shell, i.e., only after taking into account the gauge-invariant content of the theory. One of the main new aspects of our approach is that we do not limit $${{\mathcal {F}}}$$ to be generated by a group action. We will show that, whenever it exists, the above gauging is effectuated by a single geometrical and universal gauge theory, whose target space is the generalized tangent bundle $$TM\oplus T^*M$$ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]