The spacetime physics of bulk closed string tachyon condensation is studied at the level of a two-derivative effective action. We derive the unique perturbative tachyon potential consistent with a full class of linearized tachyonic deformations of supercritical string theory. The solutions of interest deform a general linear dilaton background by the insertion of purely exponential tachyon vertex operators. In spacetime, the evolution of the tachyon drives an accelerated contraction of the universe and, absent higher-order corrections, the theory collapses to a cosmological singularity in finite time, at arbitrarily weak string coupling. When the tachyon exhibits a null symmetry, the worldsheet dynamics are known to be exact and well-defined at tree level. We prove that if the two-derivative effective action is free of non-gravitational singularities, higher-order corrections always resolve the spacetime curvature singularity of the null tachyon. The resulting theory provides an explicit mechanism by which tachyon condensation can generate or terminate the flow of cosmological time in string theory. Additional particular solutions can resolve an initial singularity with a tachyonic phase at weak coupling, or yield solitonic configurations that localize the universe along spatial directions.
We find an exact classical solution in Euclidean gravity coupled to a scalar field with a particular form of potential commonly used in tachyon cosmology. This solution represents a tunneling between two vacua.
We show that in a multi DD branes system with high temperature, there may exist a thermal cosmological phase before usual tachyon inflation. Though this thermal phase can be very transitory, it may has some interesting applications for early tachyon/brane cosmology.
We study dynamics of rolling tachyon and Abelian gauge field on unstable D-branes, of which effective action is given by Born-Infeld type nonlocal action. Possible cosmological evolutions are also discussed. In the Einstein frame of string cosmology, every expanding flat universe is proven to be decelerating.
Nonlocal cosmological models derived from String Field Theory are considered. A new method for constructing rolling tachyon solutions in the FRW metric in two field configuration is proposed and solutions of the Friedman equations with nonlocal operator are presented. The cosmological properties of these solutions are discussed.
We investigate aspects of quantum cosmology in relation to string cosmology systems that are described in terms of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action. Using the Silverstein-Tong model, we analyze the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the rolling scalar and gravity as well for $R\times{S^3}$ universe, by obtaining the wave functions for all dynamical degrees of freedom of the system. We show, that in some cases one can construct a time dependent version of the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) equation for the moduli field $ϕ$. We also explore in detail the minisuperspace description of the rolling tachyon when non-min…
After a pedagogical review of elementary cosmology, I go on to discuss some obstacles to obtaining inflationary or accelerating universes in M/String Theory. In particular, I give an account of an old No-Go Theorem to this effect. I then describe some recent ideas about the possible rôle of the tachyon in cosmology. I stress that there are many objections to a naive inflationary model based on the tachyon, but there remains the possiblity that the tachyon was important in a possible pre-inflationary Open-String Era preceding our present Closed String Era.
We study how the effect of closed-string tachyon condensation can enter into the on-shell effective action of open-string tachyons in the bosonic case. We also consider open-string one-loop quantum corrections to the on-shell action. We use a sigma-model approach with boundary terms, and we utilize some results of boundary string field theory (BSFT) to define the on-shell effective action. We regard D-instanton-like objects with appropriate weight as closed-string tachyon tadpoles, and we insert them into worldsheets to analyze the effect of closed-string tachyons.
It is well-known that Scherk-Schwarz compactifications in string theory have a tachyon in the closed string spectrum appearing for a critical value of a compact radius. The tachyon can be removed by an appropriate orientifold projection in type II strings, giving rise to tachyon-free compactifications. We present explicit examples of this type in various dimensions, including six and four-dimensional chiral examples, with softly broken supersymmetry in the closed sector and non-BPS configurations in the open sector. These vacua are interesting frameworks for studying various cosmological issue…
We begin by reviewing the results on the decay of unstable D-branes in type II string theory, and the open-closed string duality proposal that arises from these studies. We then apply this proposal to the study of tachyon driven cosmology, namely cosmological solutions describing the decay of unstable space filling D-branes. This naturally gives rise to a time reversal invariant bounce solution with positive spatial curvature. In the absence of a bulk cosmological constant the universe always begins with a big bang and ends in a big crunch. In the presence of a bulk cosmological constant one m…
We show an explicit relation between an RG flow of a two-dimensional gravity and an on-shell tachyon condensation in the corresponding string theory, in the case when the string theory is supercritical. The shape of the tachyon potential in this case can, in principle, be obtained by examining various RG flows. We also argue that the shape of tachyon potential for a (sub)critical string can be obtained by analyzing a supercritical string which is obtained from the (sub)critical string.
We consider the tachyon potentials in closed and open-closed string theories. In doing so, we apply technique which proved to be useful in studying the open string tachyon potentials to the problem of interest.
We investigate a string theoretic cosmological model in the context of the gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten model. Our model is based on a product of non-compact coset space and a spectator flat space; $[SL(2,R)/U(1)]_k \times {\bf R}^2$. We extend the formerly studied semiclassical consideration with infinite Kac-Moody level $k$ to a finite one. In this case, the tachyon field appears in the effective action, and we solve the Einstein equation to determine the behavior of tachyon as a function of time. We find that tachyon field dominates over dilaton field in early times. In particular, we consider…
We consider the mirage cosmology by an unstable probe brane whose action is represented by BDI action with tachyon. We study how the presence of tachyon affects the evolution of the brane inflation. At the early stage of the brane inflation, the tachyon kinetic term can play an important role in curing the superluminal expansion in mirage cosmology.
We discuss fluctuations on solitons in the dilaton/graviton/tachyon system using the low energy effective field theory approach. It is shown that closed string solitons are free of tachyons in this approximation, regardless of the exact shape of the tachyon potential.
The results conjectured here are based on tachyon condensation in compactified bosonic strings. They can in fact be proven from compactification alone, but this step was not treated consistently here. The proof is given in a new version of the paper: hep-th/0106235
We investigate the string field theory around the tachyon vacuum. A pure gauge form of the solution is constructed at the tachyon vacuum. For a special choice of the gauge function for the pure gauge form, marginal deformation from the tachyon vacuum is allowed due to the nontrivial roles of Schnabl's analytic vacuum solution. We obtain an exact rolling tachyon solution which describes the late time behaviors of D-brane decay.
These notes are an expanded version of a review lecture on closed string tachyon condensation at the RTN workshop in Copenhagen in September 2003. We begin with a lightning review of open string tachyon condensation, and then proceed to review recent results on localized closed string tachyon condensation, focusing on two simple systems, C/Z_n orbifolds and twisted circle compactifications.
I review the physical properties of different vacua in the background independent open string field theory. Talk presented at Strings 2001, Mumbai, India, http://theory.theory.tifr.res.in/strings/Proceedings/#sha-s.
We investigate spectrum of open strings on D-branes after tachyon condensation in bosonic string theory. We calculate 1-loop partition function of the string and show that its limiting forms coincide with partition functions of open strings with different boundary conditions.
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.
We present some solutions for lumps in two dimensions in level-expanded string field theory, as well as in two tachyonic theories: pure tachyonic string field theory and pure $ϕ^3$ theory. Much easier to handle, these theories might be used to help understanding solitonic features of string field theory. We compare lump solutions between these theories and we discuss some convergence issues.
In this short note we apply Schrodinger picture description of the minisuperspace approach to the closed string tachyon condensation. We will calculate the rate of produced closed string and we will show that the density of high massive closed string modes reaches the string density in time of order one in string units.
Closed string tachyons have long been somewhat mysterious. We note that there is often a regime in the classical moduli space in which one can systematically compute the effective action for such fields. In this regime, the tachyon is light, and cannot be integrated out. Instead, one must consider the combined dynamics of gravitons, moduli, tachyons and other light fields. We compute the action and find that the quartic term for the tachyon is positive in the field definition where the tachyon has no derivative coupling to the radion. We study the evolution of isotropic, homogeneous configurat…
We discuss tachyon configuration for the unoriented bosonic string theory which produces a bosonic string theory with SO(32) gauge symmetry in ten dimensions. It is closely related to the tachyon condensation scenario proposed by A. Sen. We also give the boundary state description of the tachyon condensation process, with some emphasis on the rôle of orbifold conformal field theory.
We study a bosonic open string coupled to a tachyonic background field $T[X]$ and find that the tachyon field can effectively be replaced by a configuration of D-branes placed at either the zeros or the critical points of $T[X]$, depending on our choice of boundary conditions. This dual picture of the open string tachyon is explored in detail for the explicit case when the tachyonic field is quadratic.
Open string field theory in the level truncation approximation is considered. It is shown that the energy conservation law determines the existence of rolling tachyon solution. The coupling of the open string field theory action to a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric is considered and as a result the new time dependent rolling tachyon solution is presented and possible cosmological consequences are discussed.
The boundary string field theory approach is used to evaluate the one-loop tachyon potential. We first discuss the boundary condition at the two boundaries on annulus diagram and then the exact form of corrected potentials at zero and high temperature are obtained. The profile of the tachyon potential is found to be temperature independent and tachyon will condense at high temperature. Our investigations also provide an easy way to prove the universality of the tachyon potential, even if the string is in the thermal background.
We analyze the tachyon field in the bosonic open string theory in a constant B-field background using the background independent open string field theory. We show that in the large noncommutativity limit the action of tachyon field is given exactly by the potential term which has the same form as in the case without B-field but the product of tachyon field is taken to be the star product.
A discrete symmetry of the string field tachyon condensate noted by Hata and Shinohara is identified as a discrete subgroup of an SU(1,1) symmetry acting on the ghost coordinates. This symmetry, known from early studies of free gauge invariant string field actions, extends to off-shell interactions only for very restricted kinds of string vertices, among them the associative vertex of cubic string field theory. It follows that the string field relevant for tachyon condensation can be trimmed down to SU(1,1) singlets.
In this paper we propose the toy model of the closed string tachyon effective action that has marginal tachyon profile as its exact solution in case of constant or linear dilaton background. Then we will apply this model for description of two dimensional bosonic string theory. We will find that the background configuration with the spatial dependent linear dilaton, flat spacetime metric and marginal tachyon profile is the exact solution of our model even if we take into account backreaction of tachyon on dilaton and metric.
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%.
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.
A new family of non critical bosonic string backgrounds in arbitrary space time dimension $D$ and with $ISO(1,D-2)$ Poincaré invariance are presented. The metric warping factor and dilaton agree asymptotically with the linear dilaton background. The closed string tachyon equation of motion enjoys, in the linear approximation, an exact solution of ``kink'' type interpolating between different expectation values. A renormalization group flow interpretation ,based on a closed string tachyon potential of type $-T^{2}e^{-T}$, is suggested.
We construct a class of CFT's which describe space-dependent closed string tachyon backgrounds, as the IR limit of GLSM's in which the FI-parameter is promoted to a superfield. Whole process of tachyon condensation is described by a single CFT. We apply this construction to several examples, in which target space is deformed drastically, and the dilaton background may vary, as a tachyon condenses.
These lectures provide an introduction to the subject of tachyon condensation in the open bosonic string. The problem of tachyon condensation is first described in the context of the low-energy Yang-Mills description of a system of multiple D-branes, and then using the language of string field theory. An introduction is given to Witten's cubic open bosonic string field theory. The Sen conjectures on tachyon condensation in open bosonic string field theory are introduced, and evidence confirming these conjectures is reviewed.
A system of k Neveu-Schwarz (NS) 5-branes of type II string theory with one transverse direction compactified on a circle admits various unstable D-brane systems, - some with geometric instability arising out of being placed at a point of unstable equilibrium in space and some with the usual open string tachyonic instability but no geometric instability. We discuss the effect of NS 5-branes on the descent relations among these branes and their physical interpretation in the T-dual ALF spaces. We argue that if the tachyon potential controlling these descent relations obeys certain conditions, t…
We study D-brane dynamics in the gravity dual background of ODp theories using the effective action on the worldvolume of the brane. We explore the similarities of the system with the rolling tachyon, including the exponential decrease of pressure at late times. We also consider the case where the worldvolume theory on a D3-brane is coupled to gravity and construct a cosmological model. By considering the time reversal symmetric solutions, we find that we can have both closed and open universes depending on the initial value of the radial mode on the brane. We compare the models with tachyon d…
We use open string field theory to study the dynamics of unstable branes in the bosonic string theory, in the background of a generic linear dilaton. We find a simple exact solution describing a dynamical interpolation between the perturbative vacuum and the recently discovered nonperturbative tachyon vacuum. In our solution, the open string tachyon increases exponentially along a null direction, after which nonlinearities set in and cause the solution to asymptote to a static state. In particular, the wild oscillations of the open string fields which plague the time-like rolling tachyon solut…
We construct a vertex operator which describes an emission of the ground-state tachyon of the closed string out of the noncommutative open string. Such a vertex operator is shown to exist only when the momentum of the closed-string tachyon is subject to some constraints coming from the background $B$ field. The vertex operator has a multiplicative coupling constant $g(σ)$ which depends on $σ$ as $g(σ)=\sin^2 σ$ in $0 \le σ\le π$. This behavior is the same as in the ordinary B=0 case.
We study decay of a flat unstable D$p$-brane in the context of boundary string field theory action. Three types of homogeneous rolling tachyons are obtained without and with Born-Infeld type electromagnetic field.
We study the fluctuation modes for lump solutions of the tachyon effective potential in p-adic open string theory. We find a discrete spectrum with equally spaced mass squared levels. We also find that the interactions derived from this field theory are consistent with p-adic string amplitudes for excited string states.
We investigate real-time tachyon dynamics of unstable D-brane carrying fundamental string charge. We construct the boundary state relevant for rolling of modulated tachyon with gauge fields excited on the world-volume, and study spatial distribution of the fundamental string charge and current as the D-brane decays. We find that, in contrast to homogeneous tachyon rolling, spatial modulation of the tachyon field triggers density wave of strings when electric field is turned on, and of string anti-string pairs when magnetic field is turned on. We show that the energy density and the fundamental…
We discuss the problem of tachyon condensation in the framework of background independent open string field theory. We show, in particular, that the computation of the string field theory action simplifies considerably if one looks at closed string backgrounds with a large B field, and can be carried out exactly for a generic tachyon profile. We confirm previous results on the form of the exact tachyon potential, and we find, within this framework, solitonic solutions which correspond to lower dimensional unstable branes.
It has been conjectured that at a stationary point of the tachyon potential for the D-brane of bosonic string theory, the negative energy density exactly cancels the D-brane tension. We evaluate this tachyon potential by off-shell calculations in open string field theory. Surprisingly, the condensation of the tachyon mode alone into the stationary point of its cubic potential is found to cancel about 70% of the D-brane tension. Keeping relevant scalars up to four mass levels above the tachyon, the energy density at the shifted stationary point cancels 99% of the D-brane tension.
We analyse the condensation of closed string tachyons on the $C/Z_N$ orbifold. We construct the potential for the tachyons upto the quartic interaction term in the large $N$ limit. In this limit there are near marginal tachyons. The quartic coupling for these tachyons is calculated by subtracting from the string theory amplitude for the tachyons, the contributions from the massless exchanges, computed from the effective field theory. We argue that higher point interaction terms are are also of the same order in 1/N as the quartic term and are necessary for existence of the minimum of the tachy…
We argue that the rolling-tachyon solution in cubic OSFT proceeds at late times to precisely the analytic tachyon-vacuum solution constructed by Schnabl. In addition, we demonstrate the relationship between the rolling-tachyon solution and the standard BCFT description by showing that there is a finite gauge transformation which relates the two.
After a brief introduction to the AdS/CFT holography a tachyon inflation will be discussed in the framework of holographic cosmology. The model is based on a holographic braneworld scenario with an effective tachyon field on a D3-brane located at the holographic bound of an asymptotic ADS$_5$ bulk.
By a toroidal compactification with a vortex like configuration of tachyon fields, the unoriented bosonic string in 26 dimensions becomes equivalent to 10 dimensional string theory with gauge group $SO(32)\times G$ where $G$ has rank 16. The reduction from SO(8192) to SO(32) is induced by the action of non-abelian Wilson lines which twists the tachyon. The additional enhanced gauge symmetry $G$ appears from closed string sector by Frenkel-Kac construction. We also examine the consistency of the tachyon condensation.
We find a codimension one lump solution of closed bosonic string field theory. We consider vertices up to quartic order and include in the string field the tachyon, the ghost dilaton, and a metric fluctuation. While the tachyon profile clearly is that of a lump, we observe that the ghost dilaton is roughly constant in the direction transverse to the lump, equal to the value it takes in the nonperturbative tachyon vacuum. We explain, with a simple model, why this should be expected.
We consider tachyon condensation in unstable ten-dimensional heterotic string theory with gauge group E8. In the background of a lightlike linear dilaton rolling to weak coupling, we find an exact solution in which the theory decays to a stable ground state. The final state represents a new, modular-invariant perturbative string theory, tachyon-free in nine spacetime dimensions with a spacelike dilaton gradient, E8 gauge group and no spacetime supersymmetry.
We study a simple model of p-adic closed and open strings. It sheds some light on the dynamics of tachyon condensation for both types of strings. We calculate the effect of static and decaying D-brane configurations on the closed string background. For closed string tachyons we find lumps analogous to D-branes. By studying their fluctuation spectrum and the D-branes they admit, we argue that closed string lumps should be interpreted as spacetimes of lower dimensionality described by some noncritical p-adic string theory.
We consider bulk tachyon condensations in a non-linear sigma model whose low energy effective theory contains a nontrivial scalar potential. We argue that one would typically encounter a strong coupling background along a RG flow corresponding to a bulk tachyon condensation, beyond which the RG analysis would not be reliable. In a range of the flow in which the string coupling constant is small, we can show that the tachyon condensation actually decreases the central charge of the sigma model.
We study closed string tachyon condensation using the RG flow of the worldsheet theory. In many cases the worldsheet theory enjoys N=2 supersymmetry, which provides analytic control over the flow, due to non-renormalization theorems. Moreover, Mirror symmetry sheds light on the RG flow in such cases. We discuss the relevant tachyon condensation in the context of both compact and non-compact situations which lead to very different conclusions. Furthermore, the tachyon condensation leads to non-trivial dualities for non-supersymmetric probe theories.
We show that in the D1-D5 system with angular momentum, there can be localised tachyonic winding string modes in the interior of the spacetime even if we choose a spin structure which preserves supersymmetry in the asymptotic region. We consider cases where the tachyonic region extends outside the event horizon, and argue that the natural endstate of tachyon condensation in almost all cases is one of the solitonic solutions which correspond to special microstates of the D1-D5 system.
The amplitudes in perturbative open string theory are examined as functions of the tachyon condensate parameter. The boundary state formalism demonstrates the decoupling of the open string modes at the non-perturbative minima of the tachyon potential via a degeneration of open world-sheets and identifies an independence of the coupling constants $g_s$ and $g_{YM}$ at general values of the tachyon condensate. The closed sector is generated at the quantum level; it is also generated at the classical level through the condensation of the propagating open string modes on the D-brane degrees of fre…
We calculate the simultaneous double-soft limit of two massless closed strings scattering with any number of closed string tachyons to the subleading order at the tree level. The limit factorizes the scattering amplitude into a double-soft factor multiplying the pure tachyon subamplitude, suggesting a universal double-soft theorem for the massless closed string. We confirm an existing result for the double-soft graviton in an on-shell equivalent, but different form, while also establishing the double-soft factorization behavior of the string dilaton and of the Kalb-Ramond state, as well as the…
We study the late time behavior of the boundary state representing the rolling tachyon constructed by Sen. It is found that the coupling of the rolling tachyon to massive modes of the closed string grows exponentially as the system evolves. We argue that the description of rolling tachyon by a boundary state is valid during the finite time determined by string coupling, and that energy could be dissipated to the bulk beyond this time. We also comment on the relation between the rolling tachyon boundary state and the spacelike D-brane boundary state.
We present qualitative evidence that closed string tachyon solitons describe backgrounds of lower-dimensional sub-critical string theory. We show that a co-dimension one soliton in the low energy effective gravity-dilaton-tachyon theory in general has a flat string-frame metric, and a dilaton that grows in both directions away from the core, and is linear in the soliton worldvolume coordinates. Spacetime, as seen in the Einstein frame, is therefore effectively localized in (D-1)-dimensions, in which the dilaton is linear, in agreement with the linear dilaton background of the (D-1)-dimensional…
We consider twisted tachyons on C/Z_N orbifolds of bosonic closed string theory. It has been conjectured that these tachyonic instabilities correspond to decays of the orbifolds into flat space or into orbifolds with smaller deficit angles. We examine this conjecture using closed string field theory, with the string field truncated to low-level tachyons. We compute the tachyon potentials for C/Z_2 and C/Z_3 orbifolds and find critical points at depths that generate about 70% of the expected change in the deficit angle. We find that both twisted fields and untwisted modes localized near the ape…
