Anomaly-free gauges in superstring theory and double supersymmetric sigma-model

Superharmonic gauge which is a nontrivial analog of the harmonic gauge in bosonic string theory is constructed for the fermionic superstrings. In contrast to the conformal gauge, the harmonic gauge in bosonic string and superharmonic gauge in superstring theory are shown to be free from previously discovered BRST anomaly (in critical dimension) in higher orders of string perturbation theory and thus provide the setup for consistent quantization of (super)string theory. Superharmonic gauge appears to be closely connected with the supersymmetric σ-model with the target space being also a supermanifold. 28 refs