  We explore the application of approximation schemes from many body physics,
including the Hartree-Fock method and random phase approximation (RPA), to the
problem of analyzing the low energy excitations of a polymer chain made up of
bosonic string bits. We accordingly obtain an expression for the rest tension
$T_0$ of the bosonic relativistic string in terms of the parameters
characterizing the microscopic string bit dynamics. We first derive an exact
connection between the string tension and a certain correlation function of the
many-body string bit system. This connection is made for an arbitrary
interaction potential between string bits and relies on an exact dipole sum
rule. We then review an earlier calculation by Goldstone of the low energy
excitations of a polymer chain using RPA. We assess the accuracy of the RPA by
calculating the first order corrections. For this purpose we specialize to the
unique scale invariant potential, namely an attractive delta function potential
in two (transverse) dimensions. We find that the corrections are large, and
discuss a method for summing the large terms. The corrections to this improved
RPA are roughly 15\%.
