English

D-Sphalerons and the Topology of String Configuration Space

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-10-31 v2

Abstract

We show that unstable D-branes play the role of ``D-sphalerons'' in string theory. Their existence implies that the configuration space of Type II string theory has a complicated homotopy structure, similar to that of an infinite Grassmannian. In particular, the configuration space of Type IIA (IIB) string theory on R10\R^{10} has non-trivial homotopy groups πk\pi_k for all kk even (odd).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0001143,
  title  = {D-Sphalerons and the Topology of String Configuration Space},
  author = {Jeffrey A. Harvey and Petr Horava and Per Kraus},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0001143},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

29pp, harvmac (b),trivial typo fixed