Related papers: On Witten's Instability and Winding Tachyons
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…
I point out that the usual Coleman-de Luccia analysis of tunnelling via instantons between perturbatively stable minima using the thin-wall approximation misses one of the effects of gravitational backreaction on the on-shell action and…
We analyse the cosmological implications of brane-antibrane systems in string-theoretic orbifold and orientifold models. In a class of realistic models, consistency conditions require branes and antibranes to be stuck at different fixed…
The existence of light, fundamental bosonic fields is an attractive possibility that can be tested via black hole observations. We study the effect of a tidal field -- caused by a companion star or black hole -- on the evolution of…
We consider classical dynamics of two real scalar fields within a model with the potential having a saddle point. The solitons of such model are field configurations that have the form of closed loops in the field space. We study the…
Starting with exact solutions to string theory on curved spacetimes we obtain deformations that represent gravitational shock waves. These may exist in the presence or absence of sources. Sources are effectively induced by a tachyon field…
String theory in Euclidean flat space with a spacelike linear dilaton contains a D1-brane which looks like a semi-infinite hairpin. In addition to its curved shape, this ``hairpin brane'' has a condensate of the open string tachyon…
We develop semiclassical methods for studying bubble nucleation in models with parameters that vary slowly in time. Introducing a more general rotation of the time contour allows access to a larger set of final states, and typically a…
Rolling tachyon field models are among the candidates suggested as explanations for the recent acceleration of the Universe. In these models the field is expected to interact with gauge fields and lead to variations of the fine-structure…
We study exact string backgrounds representing a constant magnetic field background in heterotic string theory. These backgrounds are obtained by Kaluza-Klein reduction of a special class of plane wave solutions. For small values of the…
Closed string tachyon condensation in spacetime generates potentials on the worldsheet that model two-dimensional inflationary cosmology. These models illustrate and elucidate a variety of aspects of inflation, in particular the generation…
We point out some intriguing analogies between field theoretic solitons (topological defects) and D-branes. Annihilating soliton-antisoliton pairs can produce stable solitons of lower dimensionality. Solitons that localize massless gauge…
Some shortcomings in regard to our lack of conceptual understanding of string theory are displayed and prescription to untangle them is proposed. String theory should be a fundamental dynamics of four dimensional symmetric space-times.…
We consider a spherically symmetric gravitational collapse of a tachyon field with an inverse square potential, which is coupled with a barotropic fluid. By employing an holonomy correction imported from loop quantum cosmology, we analyse…
In the context of bubble universes produced by a first-order phase transition with large nucleation rates compared to the inverse dynamical time scale of the parent bubble, we extend the usual analysis to non-vacuum backgrounds. In…
I present analytic time symmetric initial data for five dimensions describing ``bubbles of nothing'' which are asymptotically flat in the higher dimensional sense, i.e. there is no Kaluza-Klein circle asymptotically. The mass and size of…
System of a D-brane in bosonic string theory on a constant $B$ field background is studied in order to obtain further insight into the bulk-boundary duality. Boundary states which describe arbitrary numbers of open-string tachyons and…
Inspired by the warped Randall Sundrum scenario proposed to solve the mass scale hierarchy problem with a compactified fifth extra dimension, a similar model with no metric singularities has been elaborated. In this framework, the…
Supercritical string theories in D>10 dimensions with no moduli are described, generalizing the asymmetric orientifold construction of one of the authors. By taking the number of dimensions to be large and turning on fluxes, dilaton…
It has been argued recently that string theory effects qualitatively modify the effective black hole geometry experienced by modes with radial momentum of order $1/\sqrt{\alpha'}$. At tree level, these $\alpha'$-effects can be explicitly…