Embedding of the bosonic string into the W3 string

We investigate new realisations of the W3 algebra with arbitrary central charge, making use of the fact that this algebra can be linearised by the inclusion of a spin-1 current. We use the new realisations with c = 102 and c = 100 to build non-critical and critical W3 BRST operators. Both of these can be converted by local canonical transformations into a BRST operator for the Virasoro string with c = 28 f- 2, together with a Kugo-Ojima topological term. Consequently, these realisations provide embeddings of the Virasoro string into non-critical and critical W3 strings.