Charting the landscape of supercritical string theory

Abstract

Special solutions of string theory in supercritical dimensions can interpolate in time between theories with different numbers of spacetime dimensions (via dimension quenching) and different amounts of worldsheet supersymmetry (via c-duality). These solutions connect supercritical string theories to the more familiar string duality web in ten dimensions, and provide a precise link between supersymmetric and purely bosonic string theories. Dimension quenching and c-duality appear to be natural concepts in string theory, giving rise to large networks of interconnected theories. We describe some of these networks in detail and discuss general consistency constraints on the types of transitions that arise in this framework.

27 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• New Dimensions for Wound Strings: The Modular Transformation of Geometry to Topology
• Supercritical N = 2 string theory
• Dimensional Duality

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Les Houches Lectures on Constructing String Vacua
• Cosmology of the closed string tachyon
• Supercritical N = 2 string theory
• M-Theory Through the Looking Glass: Tachyon Condensation in the E_8 Heterotic String
• A stable vacuum of the tachyonic E8 string
• Light-like tachyon condensation in Open String Field Theory
• World Sheet Commuting βγCFT and Non-Relativistic String Theories
• Supercriticality of a Class of Critical String Cosmological Solutions