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Title: Closed Strings From Nothing

Abstract

We study the physics of open strings in bosonic and type II string theories in the presence of unstable D-branes. When the potential energy of the open string tachyon is at its minimum, Sen has argued that only closed strings remain in the perturbative spectrum. We explore the scenario of Yi and of Bergman, Hori and Yi, who argue that the open string degrees of freedom are strongly coupled and disappear through confinement. We discuss arguments using open string field theory and worldsheet boundary RG flows, which seem to indicate otherwise. We then describe a solitonic excitation of the open string tachyon and gauge field with the charge and tension of a fundamental closed string. This requires a double scaling limit where the tachyon is taken to its minimal value and the electric field is taken to its maximum value. The resulting flux tube has an unconstrained spatial profile; and for large fundamental string charge, it appears to have light, weakly coupled open strings living in the core. We argue that the flux tube acquires a size or order {alpha}' through sigma model and string coupling effects; and we argue that confinement effects make the light degrees of freedom heavymore » and strongly interacting.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
OSTI Identifier:
784963
Report Number(s):
SLAC-PUB-8735
TRN: US0108734
DOE Contract Number:  
AC03-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 25 Jul 2001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; CONFINEMENT; DEGREES OF FREEDOM; ELECTRIC FIELDS; EXCITATION; POTENTIAL ENERGY; SIGMA MODEL; TACHYONS; BOSONS; STRING MODELS; SOLITONS

Citation Formats

Lawrence, Albion. Closed Strings From Nothing. United States: N. p., 2001. Web. doi:10.2172/784963.
Lawrence, Albion. Closed Strings From Nothing. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/784963
Lawrence, Albion. 2001. "Closed Strings From Nothing". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/784963. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/784963.
@article{osti_784963,
title = {Closed Strings From Nothing},
author = {Lawrence, Albion},
abstractNote = {We study the physics of open strings in bosonic and type II string theories in the presence of unstable D-branes. When the potential energy of the open string tachyon is at its minimum, Sen has argued that only closed strings remain in the perturbative spectrum. We explore the scenario of Yi and of Bergman, Hori and Yi, who argue that the open string degrees of freedom are strongly coupled and disappear through confinement. We discuss arguments using open string field theory and worldsheet boundary RG flows, which seem to indicate otherwise. We then describe a solitonic excitation of the open string tachyon and gauge field with the charge and tension of a fundamental closed string. This requires a double scaling limit where the tachyon is taken to its minimal value and the electric field is taken to its maximum value. The resulting flux tube has an unconstrained spatial profile; and for large fundamental string charge, it appears to have light, weakly coupled open strings living in the core. We argue that the flux tube acquires a size or order {alpha}' through sigma model and string coupling effects; and we argue that confinement effects make the light degrees of freedom heavy and strongly interacting.},
doi = {10.2172/784963},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/784963}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 25 00:00:00 EDT 2001},
month = {Wed Jul 25 00:00:00 EDT 2001}
}