Solving AdS3 string theory at minimal tension: tree-level correlators

A bstract We revisit the minimal tension ( k = 1) string theory on AdS 3 × S 3 × 𝕋 4 . We propose a new free-field description of the worldsheet theory and show how localization of string amplitudes emerges from the path integral. We exemplify our proposal by reproducing the worldsheet partition function of the $$ \mathfrak{psu} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>psu</mml:mi> </mml:math> (1 , 1|2) 1 WZW model and providing explicit expressions for spectrally-flowed vertex operators and DDF operators. We compute string correlators in the path integral formalism and obtain a precise tree-level match with correlation functions of the boundary symmetric orbifold.