  We study worldsheet conformal invariance for bosonic string propagating in a
curved background using the hamiltonian formalism. In order to formulate the
problem in a background independent manner we first rewrite the worldsheet
theory in a language where it describes a single particle moving in an
infinite-dimensional curved spacetime. This language is developed at a formal
level without regularizing the infinite-dimensional traces. Then we adopt
DeWitt's (Phys.Rev.85:653-661,1952) coordinate independent formulation of
quantum mechanics in the present context. Given the expressions for the
classical Virasoro generators, this procedure enables us to define the
coordinate invariant quantum analogues which we call DeWitt-Virasoro
generators. This framework also enables us to calculate the invariant matrix
elements of an arbitrary operator constructed out of the DeWitt-Virasoro
generators between two arbitrary scalar states. Using these tools we further
calculate the DeWitt-Virasoro algebra in spin-zero representation. The result
is given by the Witt algebra with additional anomalous terms that vanish for
Ricci-flat backgrounds. Further analysis need to be performed in order to
precisely relate this with the beta function computation of Friedan and others.
Finally, we explain how this analysis improves the understanding of showing
conformal invariance for certain pp-wave that has been recently discussed using
hamiltonian framework.
