Related papers: The Inside Story: Quasilocal Tachyons and Black Ho…
We show that a tachyon condensate phase replaces the spacelike singularity in certain cosmological and black hole spacetimes in string theory. We analyze explicitly a set of examples with flat spatial slices in various dimensions which have…
Physical arguments stemming from the theory of black-hole thermodynamics are used to put constraints on the dynamics of closed-string tachyon condensation in Scherk--Schwarz compactifications. A geometrical interpretation of the tachyon…
Analysing closed string tachyon condensation will improve our understanding of spacetime in string theory. We study the string spectrum on a BTZ black hole spacetime supported by NS-NS flux, which provides a calculable example where we…
A basic problem in gravitational physics is the resolution of spacetime singularities where general relativity breaks down. The simplest such singularities are conical singularities arising from orbifold identifications of flat space, and…
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…
The c=1 matrix model, with or without a type 0 hat, has an exact quantum solution corresponding to closed string tachyon condensation along a null surface. The condensation occurs, and spacetime dissolves, at a finite retarded time on I^+.…
We further study the nonperturbative formulation of two-dimensional black holes. We find a nonlinear differential equation satisfied by the tachyon in the black hole background. We show that singularities in the tachyon field configurations…
By compactifying a critical bosonic string theory on an internal non-flat space with a constant volume, we study the role played by the closed string tachyon in the cosmology of the effective four-dimensional space-time. The effective…
The $d = 2$ string admits a black hole solution and also a singular solution when tachyon back reaction is included. It is of importance to know if the former solution can evolve into a later one. An explicit solution describing this…
To explain black hole thermodynamics in quantum gravity, one must introduce constraints to ensure that a black hole is actually present. I show that for a large class of black holes, such ``horizon constraints'' allow the use of conformal…
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 compute the one-loop partition function for quadratic tachyon background in open string theory. Both closed and open string representations are developed. Using these representations we study the one-loop divergences in the partition…
We investigate closed string tachyon condensation in Misner space, a toy model for big bang universe. In Misner space, we are able to condense tachyonic modes of closed strings in the twisted sectors, which is supposed to remove the big…
We study classical solutions of a low energy effective theory of a string theory with tachyons. With a certain ansatz, we obtain all possible solutions which are weakly coupled and weakly curved. We find, in addition to the interpolating…
We investigate the spacetime-dependent condensation of the tachyon in effective field theories. Previous work identified singularities in the field which appear in finite time: infinite gradients at the kinks, and (in the eikonal…
The two-dimensional model which emerges from low-energy considerations of string theory is written down. Solutions of this classical model are noted, including some examples which have nontrivial tachyon field. One such represents the…
There are many different phenomenological models describing the cosmological dark energy and accelerating Universe by choosing adjustable functions. In this paper we consider a specific model of scalar tachyon field which is derived from…
We identify a quantity in the $c=1$ matrix model which describes the wavefunction for physical scattering of a tachyon from a black hole of the two dimensional critical string theory. At the semiclassical level this quantity corresponds to…
We conjecture that the end point of bulk closed string tachyon decay at any non-zero coupling, is the annihilation of space time by Witten's bubble of nothing, resulting in a topological phase of the theory. In support of this we present a…
A very brief review is given of some of the developments leading to our current understanding of black holes in string theory. This is followed by a discussion of two possible misconceptions in this subject - one involving the stability of…