Orientifolds, RG Flows, and Closed String Tachyons

Technical Report · Thu Jul 08 04:00:00 EDT 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10108· OSTI ID:10108

Kachru, S ^[1]

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1. SLAC

We discuss the fate of certain tachyonic closed string theories from two perspectives. In both cases our approach involves studying directly configurations with finite negative tree-level cosmological constant. Closed string analogues of orientifolds, which carry negative tension, are argued to represent the minima of the tachyon potential in some cases. In other cases, we make use of the fact, noted in the early string theory literature, that strings can propagate on spaces of subcritical dimension at the expense of introducing a tree-level cosmological constant. The form of the tachyon vertex operator in these cases makes it clear that a subcritical-dimension theory results from tachyon condensation. Using results of Kutasov, we argue that in some Scherk-Schwarz models, for finely-tuned tachyon condensates, a minimal model CFT times a subcritical dimension theory results. In some instances, these two sets of ideas may be related by duality.

• Research Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 10108
• Report Number(s): SLAC-PUB-8187
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CONDENSATES
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
DIMENSIONS
DUALITY
TACHYONS