In this paper we give an exact analytic solution for tachyon condensation in the modified (picture 0) cubic superstring field theory. We prove the absence of cohomology and, crucially, reproduce the correct value for the D-brane tension. The solution is surprising for two reasons: First, the existence of a tachyon vacuum in this theory has not been definitively established in the level expansion. Second, the solution {\it vanishes} in the GSO$(-)$ sector, implying a ``tachyon vacuum'' solution exists even for a {\it BPS} D-brane.
Using the boundary state formalism we obtain the partition function corresponding to a dynamical (rotating-moving) D$p$-brane in the presence of electromagnetic and tachyonic background fields in the superstring theory. The instability of such D$p$-brane due to the tachyon condensation is investigated.
We study the tachyon potential in the NS sector of Witten's cubic superstring field theory. In this theory, the pure tachyon contribution to the potential has no minimum. We find that this remains the case when higher modes up to level two are included.
We evaluate the vacuum energy of a simple tachyon vacuum solution using the level truncation scheme in cubic superstring field theory. By truncating the standard Virasoro $L_0$ level expansion of the solution, we obtain a value of the vacuum energy in agreement with Sen's first conjecture.
We study quantum corrections at the one loop level in open superstring tachyon condensation using the boundary string field theory (BSFT) method. We find that the tachyon field action has the same form as at the disc level, but with a renormalized effective coupling $λ' =g_s^{ren}e^{-T^2/4}$ ($g_s^{ren}$ is the renormalized dimensionless closed string coupling, $e^{-T^2/4}$ is the tachyonic field expectation value) and with an effective string tension. This result is in agreement with that based on general analysis of loop effects.
A recently proposed \ell=\infty field theory model of tachyon dynamics for unstable bosonic D-branes has been shown to arise as the two-derivative truncation of (boundary)-string field theory. Using an \ell\to \infty limit appropriate to stable kinks we obtain a model for the tachyon dynamics on unstable D-branes or D-brane anti-D-brane pairs of superstring theory. The tachyon potential is a positive definite even function of the tachyon, and at the stable global minima there is no on-shell dynamics. The kink solution mimics nicely the properties of stable D-branes: the spectrum of the kink co…
We compute the Boundary Superstring Field Theory partition function on the annulus in the presence of independent linear tachyon profiles on the two boundaries. The R-R sector is found to contribute non-trivially to the derivative terms of the space-time effective action. In the process we construct a boundary state description of D-branes in the presence of a linear tachyon. We quantize the open string in a tachyonic background and address the question of open/closed string duality.
We study a new set of identity-based solutions to analyze the problem of tachyon condensation in open bosonic string field theory and cubic superstring field theory. Even though these identity-based solutions seem to be trivial, it turns out that after performing a suitable gauge transformation, we are left with the known Erler-Schnabl-type solutions which correctly reproduce the value of the D-brane tension. This result shows explicitly that how a seemingly trivial solution can generate a non-trivial configuration which precisely represents to the tachyon vacuum.
We use the BSFT method to study the unoriented open string field theory (type I). The partition function on the Mobius strip is calculated. We find that, at the one-loop level, the divergence coming from planar graph and unoriented graph cancel each other as expected.
We present an analytic solution for tachyon condensation on a non-BPS D-brane in Berkovits' open superstring field theory. The solution is presented as a product of $2\times 2$ matrices in two distinct $GL_2$ subgroups of the open string star algebra. All string fields needed for computation of the nonpolynomial action can be derived in closed form, and the action produces the expected non-BPS D-brane tension in accordance with Sen's conjecture. We also comment on how D-brane charges may be encoded in the topology of the tachyon vacuum gauge orbit.
The gauge invariance of cubic open superstring field theory is considered in a framework of level truncation, and applications to the tachyon condensation problem are discussed. As it is known, in the bosonic case the Feynman-Siegel gauge is not universal within the level truncation method. We explore another gauge that is more suitable for calculation of the tachyon potential for fermionic string at level (2,6). We show that this new gauge has no restrictions on the region of its validity at least at this level.
We compute one-loop correction to the string field theory action of the tachyon for unstable D-branes in the framework of the boundary superstring field theory. We would expect that the one-loop correction comes from the partition function of the two-dimensional world-sheet theory on the annulus. The annulus correction suggests that the genus expansion is, somehow, governed by the effective string coupling defined in terms of the tachyon λ=g_s exp(-T^2/4).
We construct a kink solution on a non-BPS D-brane using Berkovits' formulation of superstring field theory in the level truncation scheme. The tension of the kink reproduces 95% of the expected BPS D-brane tension. We also find a lump-like solution which is interpreted as a kink--antikink pair, and investigate some of its properties. These results may be considered as successful tests of Berkovits' superstring field theory combined with the modified level truncation scheme.
We study the tree level scattering or emission of n closed superstrings from a decaying non-BPS brane in Type II superstring theory. We attempt to calculate generic n-point superstring disk amplitudes in the rolling tachyon background. We show that these can be written as infinite power series of Toeplitz determinants, related to expectation values of a periodic function in Circular Unitary Ensembles. Further analytical progress is possible in the special case of bulk-boundary disk amplitudes. These are interpreted as probability amplitudes for emission of a closed string with initial conditio…
We study certain supersymmetry breaking deformations of linear dilaton backgrounds in different dimensions. In some cases, the deformed theory has bulk closed strings tachyons. In other cases there are no bulk tachyons, but there are localized tachyons. The real time condensation of these localized tachyons is described by an exactly solvable worldsheet CFT. We also find some stable, non-supersymmetric backgrounds.
We derive equations of motion for the tachyon field living on an unstable non-BPS D-brane in the level truncated open cubic superstring field theory in the first non-trivial approximation. We construct a special time dependent solution to this equation which describes the rolling tachyon. It starts from the perturbative vacuum and approaches one of stable vacua in infinite time. We investigate conserved energy functional and show that its different parts dominate in different stages of the evolution. We show that the pressure for this solution has its minimum at zero time and goes to minus ene…
It has been conjectured that at the stationary point of the tachyon potential for the D-brane-anti-D-brane pair or for the non-BPS D-brane of superstring theories, the negative energy density cancels the brane tensions. We study this conjecture using a Wess-Zumino-Witten-like open superstring field theory free of contact term divergences and recently shown to give 60% of the vacuum energy by condensation of the tachyon field alone. While the action is non-polynomial, the multiscalar tachyon potential to any fixed level involves only a finite number of interactions. We compute this potential to…
Rolling tachyon backgrounds, arising from open strings on unstable branes in bosonic string theory, can be related to a simple statistical mechanical model - Coulomb gas of point charges in two dimensions confined to a circle, the Dyson gas. In this letter we describe a statistical system that is dual to non-BPS branes in superstring theory. We argue that even though the concept of time is absent in the statistical dual sitting at equilibrium, the notion of time can emerge at the large number of particles $N \to \infty$ limit.
Models of closed superstrings in certain curved NS-NS magnetic flux backgrounds are exactly solvable in terms of free fields. They interpolate between free superstring theories with periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions for fermions around some compact direction, and, in particular, between type 0 and type II string theories. Using ``9-11 flip'', this interpolation can be extended to M-theory and provides an interesting setting for a study of tachyon problem in closed string theory. Starting with a general 2-parameter family of such Melvin-type models, we present several new magnetic f…
We construct a classical solution in the GSO(-) sector in the framework of a Wess-Zumino-Witten-like open superstring field theory on a non-BPS D-brane. We use an su(2) supercurrent, which is obtained by compactifying a direction to a circle with the critical radius, in order to get analytical tachyonic lump solutions to the equation of motion. By investigating the action expanded around a solution we find that it represents a deformation from a non-BPS D-brane to a D-brane-anti-D-brane system at the critical value of a parameter which is contained in classical solutions. Although such a proce…
We consider open superstring partition function Z on the disc in time-dependent tachyon background T= f(x_i) e^{m x_0} where the profile function f depends on spatial coordinates. We compute Z to second order in derivatives of f and compare the result with some previously suggested effective actions depending only on the first derivatives of the tachyon field. We also compute the target-space stress-energy tensor in this background and demonstrate its conservation in the ``on-shell'' case of the linear profile f= f_0 + q_i x_i corresponding to a marginal perturbation. We comment on the role of…
It has been conjectured that at the stationary point of the tachyon potential for the non-BPS D-brane or brane-anti-D-brane pair, the negative energy density cancels the brane tension. We study this conjecture using a cubic superstring field theory with insertion of a double-step inverse picture changing operator. We compute the tachyon potential at levels (1/2,1) and (2,6). In the first case we obtain that the value of the potential at the minimum is 97.5% of the non BPS D-brane tension. Using a special gauge in the second case we get 105.8% of the tension.
Open superstring theory is formulated in terms of a nondegenerate supertranslation algebra. A supercharge for a tachyonic superstring can be also defined classically by taking into account the leakage of the supercurrent which is compensated by fermionic and bosonic auxiliary fields. The anticommutator of two supercharges of the tachyonic superstring does not contain the zero eigenvalue and so this string is not a BPS state. Brane-antibrane annihilation scenarios are described by these superalgebras defined on the sum of world-volumes of a D-brane, an anti-D-brane and a tachyonic superstring.
Using the boundary state formalism we study a moving D$p$-brane in a partially compact spacetime in the presence of the background fields: Kalb-Ramond $B_{μν}$, a U(1) gauge field $A_α$ and the tachyon field. The boundary state enables us to obtain interaction amplitude of two branes with above background fields. The branes are parallel or perpendicular to each other. Presence of the background fields, compactification of some directions of the spacetime, motion of the branes and arbitrariness of the branes' dimensions give a general feature to the system. Due to the tachyon fields and velocit…
In this Ph.D. thesis, we study tachyon condensation in string field theories. In chapter 2, we review Witten's bosonic string field theory and calculate the tachyon potential. In chapter 3, we calculate the tachyon potential in Berkovits' superstring field theory. In chapter 4, we look for exact solutions in a toy model. Unpublished result: we use conservation laws to calculate the level (4,8) approximation of the tachyon potential in Berkovits' superstring field theory. We verify Sen's conjecture up to 94.4%.
The pressureless tachyonic matter recently found in superstring field theory has an over-abundance problem in cosmology. We argue that this problem is naturally solved in the brane inflationary scenario if almost all of the tachyon energy is drained (via its coupling to the inflaton and matter fields) to heating the universe, while the rest of the tachyon energy goes to a network of cosmic strings (lower-dimensional BPS D-branes) produced during the tachyon rolling at the end of inflation.
We compute the lowest components of the Type II Ramond-Ramond boundary state for the tachyon profile $T (X) = λe ^{X ^ 0/\sqrt{2}}$ by direct path integral evaluation. The calculation is made possible by noting that the integrals involved in the requisite disk one-point functions reduce to integrals over the product group manifold $U (n)\times U (m)$. We further note that one-point functions of more general closed string operators in this background can also be related to $U (n)\times U (m)$ group integrals. Using this boundary state, we compute the closed string emission from a decaying unsta…
We evaluate various disk level four-point functions involving the massless scalar and tachyon vertex operators in the presence of background B-flux in superstring theory. By studying these amplitudes in specific limits, we find couplings of two scalars with two tachyons, and couplings of four tachyons on the world-volume of non-BPS D-branes of superstring theory. They are fully consistent with the non-commutative tachyonic Dirac-Born-Infeld effective action. They also fix the coefficient of $T^4$ term in the expansion of the tachyon potential around its maximum.
We show that the scattering amplitude of four open string scalars or tachyons on the world-volume of a D$_p$-brane in the bosonic string theory can be written in a universal form. The difference between this amplitude and the corresponding amplitude in the superstring theory is in an extra tachyonic pole. We show that in an $α'$ expansion and for slowly varying fields, the amplitude is consistent with the tachyonic DBI action in which the even part of the tachyon potential is $V(T)=e^{-(\sqrtπ T/α)^2}$ with $α=1$ for bosonic theory and $α=\sqrt{2}$ for superstring theory.
The potential of the closed bosonic bulk tachyon is investigated using $\mathcal{N}~=~1$ closed superstring field theory formulated around Berkovits' and Vafas embedding of the bosonic string into the superstring. From this point of view the bosonic minimum gets destabilized by new deformations of the underlying CFT. Another critical point of the potential is identified by solving the equation of motions and the properties of this new solution are discussed.
We use level truncated superstring field theory to obtain the effective potential for the Wilson line marginal deformation parameter which corresponds to the constant vacuum expectation value of the U(1) gauge field on the D-brane in a particular direction. We present results for both the BPS and the non-BPS D-brane. In the case of non-BPS D-brane the effective potential has branches corresponding to the extrema of the tachyon potential. In the branch with vanishing tachyon vev (M-branch), the effective potential becomes flatter as the level of the approximation is increased. The branch which …
We consider the $GSO(-)$ sector of the open superstring using the formalism with four-dimensional hybrid variables. This sector is defined by the world sheet hybrid variables $(θ^α,\barθ^{\dotα})$ with antiperiodic boundary conditions. The corresponding spectrum of states and conditions for physical vertices are described. In particular we construct explicitly the lower level $GSO(-)$ vertex operators corresponding to the tachyon and the massless fermions. Using these new vertices, the tachyon and massless sector contribution to the superstring field theory action of Berkovits is evaluated. In…
In this paper we propose tachyon effective actions for unstable D-branes in superstring and bosonic string theories in the presence of the linear dilaton background.
Using the boundary state formalism we study rotating and moving D$p$-branes in the presence of the following background fields: Kalb-Ramond, $U(1)$ gauge potential and the tachyon field. The rotation and motion are in the brane volumes. The interaction amplitude of two D$p$-branes will be studied, and specially contribution of the superstring massless modes will be segregated. Because of the tachyon fields, rotations and velocities of the branes, the behavior of the interaction amplitude reveals obvious differences from what is conventional.
We construct an analytic solution for tachyon condensation around identity-based marginal solutions in Berkovits' WZW-like open superstring field theory. Using this, which is a kind of wedge-based solution, the gauge invariant overlaps for the identity-based marginal solutions can be calculated analytically. This is a straightforward extension of a method in bosonic string field theory, which has been elaborated by the authors, to superstring. We also comment on a gauge equivalence relation between the tachyon vacuum solution and its marginally deformed one. From this viewpoint, we can find th…
A class of exact analytic solutions in the modified cubic fermionic string field theory with the GSO(-) sector is presented. This class contains the GSO(-) tachyon field and reproduces the correct value for the nonBPS D-brane tension.
We construct tachyon lump solutions of bosonic D2-branes on SU(2) group manifolds by level truncation approximation in cubic string field theory, which are regarded as D0-branes. The energies for these solutions show good agreement with the expected values.
We give evidence based on level-truncation computations that the rolling tachyon in cubic open string field theory (CSFT) has a well-defined but wildly oscillatory time-dependent solution which goes as $e^t$ for $t \to -\infty$. We show that a field redefinition taking the CSFT effective tachyon action to the analogous boundary string field theory (BSFT) action takes the oscillatory CSFT solution to the pure exponential solution $e^t$ of the BSFT action.
We derive an analytic series solution of the elliptic equations providing the 4-tachyon off-shell amplitude in cubic string field theory (CSFT). From such a solution we compute the exact coefficient of the quartic effective action relevant for time dependent solutions and we derive the exact coefficient of the quartic tachyon coupling. The rolling tachyon solution expressed as a series of exponentials $e^t$ is studied both using level-truncation computations and the exact 4-tachyon amplitude. The results for the level truncated coefficients are shown to converge to those derived using the exac…
We construct a class of nilpotent operators using the BRST current and ghost fields in superstring theory. The operator can be realized in cubic superstring field theory as a kinetic operator in the background of an identity-based solution. For a particular type of the deformed BRST operators, we find a homotopy operator and discuss its relationship to the cohomology in a similar way to the bosonic case, which has been elaborated by the authors.
We study the level-expansion structure of the NS string field theory actions, mainly focusing on the modified (i.e. 0-picture in the NS sector) cubic superstring field theory. This theory has a non-trivial structure already at the quadratic level due to presence of the picture-changing operator. It is explicitly shown how the usual Maxwell and tachyon actions can be obtained after integrating out the auxiliary fields. We then discuss the reality of the action in the CFT language for all of modified cubic, Witten's cubic and Berkovits' non-polynomial theories. The tachyon condensation problems …
Simple analytic solution to cubic Neveu-Schwarz String Field Theory including the $GSO(-)$ sector is presented. This solution is an analog of the Erler-Schnabl solution for bosonic case and one of the authors solution for the pure $GSO(+)$ case. Gauge transformations of the new solution to others known solutions for the $NS$ string tachyon condensation are constructed explicitly. This gauge equivalence manifestly supports the early observed fact that these solutions have the same value of the action density.
In a previous paper, we have studied multi-brane solutions in the context of cubic superstring field theory. The kinetic term of the action was computed for these multi-brane solutions, and for the evaluation of the energy, the equation of motion contracted with the solutions itself was simply assumed to be satisfied. In this paper, we compute the cubic term of the action and discuss the validity of the previous assumption. Additionally, we evaluate the Ellwood's gauge invariant observable.
We propose a Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formulation of boundary superstring field theory. The superstring field action is defined in terms of a closed one-form in the space of couplings, and we compute it explicitly for exactly solvable tachyon perturbations. We also argue that the superstring field action defined in this way is the partition function on the disc, in accord with a previous proposal.
Using the elements of the so-called $KBcγ$ subalgebra, we study a class of analytic solutions depending on a single function $F(K)$ in the modified cubic superstring field theory. We compute the energy associated to these solutions and show that the result can be expressed in terms of a contour integral. For a particular choice of the function $F(K)$, we show that the energy is given by integer multiples of a single D-brane tension.
Using Berkovits' Superstring Filed Theory action including the Ramond sector, we calculate the contribution to this action coming from the tachyon and massless fermions from both $GSO$ sectors. Some features of the action are discussed in the end, settling the ground for a more systematic treatment of spacetime fermions in superstring field theory.
We study whether the tachyon mode exists as a physical fluctuation on the 2-brane solution and on the tachyon vacuum solution in cubic open string field theory. Our analysis is based on the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. We first construct a set of six string states which corresponds to the set of fields and anti-fields containing the tachyon field. Whether the tachyon field can exist as a physical fluctuation is determined by the 6x6 matrix defining the anti-bracket in the present sector. If the matrix is degenerate/non-degenerate, the tachyon field is physical/unphysical. Calculations for the…
We present an exact solution of superstring theory that interpolates in time between an initial type 0 phase and a final phase whose physics is exactly that of the bosonic string. The initial theory is deformed by closed-string tachyon condensation along a lightlike direction. In the limit of large tachyon vev, the worldsheet conformal field theory precisely realizes the Berkovits-Vafa embedding of bosonic string theory into superstring theory. Our solution therefore connects the bosonic string dynamically with the superstring, settling a longstanding question about the relationship between th…
An F-theory dual of a nonsupersymmetric orientifold is considered. It is argued that the condensation of both open and closed string tachyons in the orientifold corresponds to the annihilation of branes and anti-branes in the F-theory dual. The end-point of tachyon condensation is thus expected to be the vacuum of Type-IIB superstring. Some speculations are presented about the F-theory dual of the bosonic string and tachyon condensation thereof.
Motivated by the appearance of associativity anomalies in the context of superstring field theory, we give a generalized solution built from boundary condition changing operators which can be associated to a generic tachyon vacuum in the $KBc$ subalgebra of the Okawa form. We articulate sufficient conditions on the choice of tachyon vacuum to ensure that ambiguous products do not appear in the equations of motion.
Recently a modification of the tachyon DBI action has been proposed in which the tachyon carries the internal CP matrix σ_1 and σ_2. In this paper, we find the momentum expansion of the disk level S-matrix element of four tachyons and one gauge field in superstring theory and show that the first and second order terms of the expansion are in perfect agreement with the above tachyon DBI action.
We present a class of analytic solutions of cubic superstring field theory in the universal sector on a non-BPS D-brane. Computation of the action and gauge invariant overlap reveal that the solutions carry half the tension of a non-BPS D-brane. However, the solutions do not satisfy the reality condition. In fact, they display an intriguing topological structure: We find evidence that conjugation of the solutions is equivalent to a gauge transformation that cannot be continuously deformed to the identity.
Performing a gauge transformation of a simple identity-like solution of superstring field theory, we construct a one-parameter family of solutions, and by evaluating the energy associated to this family, we show that for most of the values of the parameter the solution represents the tachyon vacuum, except for two isolated singular points where the solution becomes the perturbative vacuum and the half brane solution.
It has been conjectured that the bosonic open string theory around the non-perturbative tachyon vacuum has no open string dynamics at all. We explore, in the cubic open string field theory with level truncation approximation, the possibility that this conjecture is realized by the absence of kinetic terms of the string field fluctuations. We study the kinetic terms with two and four derivatives for the lower level scalar modes as well as their BRST transformation properties. The behavior of the coefficients of the kinetic terms in the neighborhood of the non-perturbative vacuum supports our ex…
We construct tachyon vacuum and half-brane solutions, using an extension of KBc algebra, in the theory around a type of identity-based marginal solutions in modified cubic superstring field theory. With explicit computations, we find that their vacuum energies are the same as those of corresponding solutions around the original theory. It implies that the vacuum energy for the identity-based marginal solution vanishes although straightforward computation of it is subtle. We also evaluate the gauge invariant overlaps for those nontrivial solutions. The values for them are deformed according to …
We analyse the classical decay process of unstable D-branes in superstring theory using the boundary string field theory (BSFT) action. We show that the solutions of the equations of motion for the tachyon field asymptotically approach to T=x^0 and the pressure rapidly falls off at late time producing the tachyon matter irrespective of the initial condition. We also consider the cosmological evolution driven by the rolling tachyon using the BSFT action as an effective action.
The descent relations between string field theory (SFT) vertices are characteristic relations of the operator formulation of SFT and they provide self-consistency of this theory. The descent relations <V_2|V_1> and <V_3|V_1> in the NS fermionic string field theory in the kappa and discrete bases are established. Different regularizations and schemes of calculations are considered and relations between them are discussed.
We obtain the left-right entanglement entropy (LREE) for a D$p$-brane with tangential motion in the presence of a $U(1)$ gauge potential, the Kalb-Ramond field and an open string tachyon field. Thus, at first we extract the Rényi entropy and then by taking a special limit of it we acquire the entanglement entropy. We shall investigate the behavior of the LREE under the tachyon condensation phenomenon. We observe that the deformation of the LREE, through this process, reveals the collapse of the brane. Besides, we examine the second law of thermodynamics for the LREE under tachyon condensation,…
