Related papers: Aspects of Born-Infeld Theory and String/M-Theory
String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1) Open/closed string duality, and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored…
Fluctuations around a non-trivial solution of Born-Infeld theory have a limiting speed given not by the Einstein metric but the Boillat metric. The Boillat metric is S-duality invariant and conformal to the open string metric. It also…
Solutions of Born-Infeld theory, representing strings extending from a Dirichlet p-brane, are also solutions of the higher derivative generalization of the Born-Infeld equations defining an exact open string vacuum configuration.
In the derivation of the Born-Infeld action for the case with a nontrivial boundary of the string world sheet the appearance of a new term changes the conformal anomaly. This may have many consequences, especially also in the study of…
An overview is presented of some cosmological aspects of string theory. Recent developments are emphasised, especially the attempts to derive inflation or alternatives to inflation from the dynamics of branes in string theory. Time…
Recent work on solutions to the Born-Infeld theory used to describe D-branes suggests that fundamental strings can be viewed, in a certain limit, as D-branes whose worldvolumes have collapsed to string-like configurations. Here we address…
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…
The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…
In these notes we provide a pedagogical introduction to the subject of tachyon condensation in Witten's cubic bosonic open string field theory. We use both the low-energy Yang-Mills description and the language of string field theory to…
This thesis investigates correspondences between open and closed strings. This is done on the level of coupled open-closed moduli spaces and from a string field theoretic point of view. The construction of boundary string field theory on…
We find the analogue of the Boillat metric of Born-Infeld theory for the M5-brane. We show that it provides the propagation cone of {\sl all} 5-brane degrees. In an arbitrary background field, this cone never lies outside the Einstein cone.…
We review the recent developments in superstrings. We start with a brief summary of various consistent superstring theories and discuss T-duality which necessarily leads to the presence of D-branes. The properties of D-branes are summarized…
I describe some recent work in which classical solutions of Dirac-Born-Infeld theory may be used to throw light on some properties of M-theory. The sources of Born-Infeld theory are the ends of strings ending on the world volume.…
This is an introduction to some recent developments in string theory and M theory. We try to concentrate on the main physical aspects, and often leave more technical details to the original literature.
We review the recent studies of tachyon condensation in string field theory. After introducing the open string field theory both for bosonic string and for superstring, we use them to examine the conjecture that the unstable configurations…
These lectures intend to give a pedagogical introduction into some of the developments in string theory during the last years. They include perturbative T-duality and non perturbative S- and U-dualities, their unavoidable demand for…
As of today there exist consistent, gauge-invariant string field theories describing all string theories: bosonic open and closed strings, open superstrings, heterotic strings and type II strings. The construction of these theories require…
A review of various aspects of superstrings in background electromagnetic fields is presented. Topics covered include the Born-Infeld action, spectrum of open strings in background gauge fields, the Schwinger mechanism, finite-temperature…
This is a short account, based on a talk given at the 2024 Moriond Cosmology Conference, of where and why string theory matters in early universe cosmology. It is written for a cosmology audience predisposed to be at best sceptical, and at…
This talk begins with some history and basic facts about string theory and its connections with strong interactions. Comparisons of stacks of Dirichlet branes with curved backgrounds produced by them are used to motivate the AdS/CFT…