Related papers: Mirror Symmetry and Closed String Tachyon Condensa…
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…
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…
We study condensation of open string tachyons using renormalization group flow in the worldsheet field theory. This approach leads to a simple picture of the physics of the nontrivial condensate.
We study the condensation of closed string tachyons as a time-dependent process. In particular, we study tachyons whose wave functions are either space-filling or localized in a compact space, and whose masses are small in string units; our…
We discuss condensations of closed string tachyons localized in compact spaces. Time evolution of an on-shell condensation is naturally related to the worldsheet RG flow. Some explicit tachyonic compactifications of Type II string theory is…
We study IIA/B string theory compactified on twisted circles. These models possess closed string tachyons and reduce to type 0B/A theory in a special limit. Using methods of gauged linear sigma models and mirror symmetry we construct a…
We propose a remarkably simple solution of cubic open string field theory which describes inhomogeneous tachyon condensation. The solution is in one-to-one correspondence with the IR fixed point of the RG-flow generated in the…
The study of discrete gauge symmetries in field theory and string theory is often carried out by embedding them into continuous symmetries. Many symmetries however do not seem to admit such embedding, for instance discrete isometries given…
The worldsheet renormalization group approach to tachyon condensation in string theory is reviewed. The open string case is summarized with examples, and closed string tachyon condensation on nonsupersymmetric orbifolds is examined in…
Alternative gauge choices for worldsheet supersymmetry can elucidate dynamical phenomena obscured in the usual superconformal gauge. In the particular example of the tachyonic $E_8$ heterotic string, we use a judicious gauge choice to show…
In this thesis we review the fundamental framework of boundary string field theory (BSFT) and apply it to the tachyon condensation on non-BPS systems in the superstring theory. The boundary string field theory can be regarded as a natural…
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…
We study the condensation of localized closed string tachyons in C^3/Z_N nonsupersymmetric noncompact orbifold singularities via renormalization group flows that preserve supersymmetry in the worldsheet conformal field theory and their…
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…
We give a pedagogical introduction to Affleck and Ludwig's g-theorem, distinguishing its applications in field theory vs string theory. We clarify the recent proposal that the vacuum degeneracy $g$ of a noncompact worldsheet sigma model…
We study the spacetime decay to nothing in string theory and M-theory. First we recall a nonsupersymmetric version of heterotic M-theory, in which bubbles of nothing -- connecting the two E_8 boundaries by a throat -- are expected to be…
We study condensation of closed string tachyons living on defects, such as orbifold fixed planes and Neveu-Schwarz fivebranes. We argue that the high energy density of localized states decreases in the process of condensation of such…
We study closed string tachyon condensation on general non-supersymmetric orbifolds of C^2. Extending previous analyses on Abelian cases, we present the classification of quotients by discrete finite subgroups of GL(2; C) as well as the…
A class of non-supersymmetric string backgrounds can be constructed using twists that involve space-time fermion parity. We propose a non-perturbative definition of string theory in these backgrounds via gauge theories with supersymmetry…
Superstring theories in the critical dimension D=10 are connected to one another by a well-explored web of dualities. In this paper we use closed-string tachyon condensation to connect the supersymmetric moduli space of the critical…