English

A stable vacuum of the tachyonic E8 string

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-04-29 v2

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0710.1628,
  title  = {A stable vacuum of the tachyonic E8 string},
  author = {Simeon Hellerman and Ian Swanson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.1628},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

30 pages, 4 figures; v2: citations added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:28:35.592Z