Closed-String Tachyon Condensation and the Worldsheet Super-Higgs Effect

Abstract

Alternative gauge choices for worldsheet supersymmetry can elucidate dynamical phenomena obscured in the usual superconformal gauge. In the particular example of the tachyonic $E_8$ heterotic string, we use a judicious gauge choice to show that the process of closed-string tachyon condensation can be understood in terms of a worldsheet super-Higgs effect. The worldsheet gravitino assimilates the goldstino and becomes a dynamical propagating field. Conformal, but not superconformal, invariance is maintained throughout.

4 pages; v2: typos corrected, a reference added; v3: final version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (abstract and intro modified for a broader audience)

References in corpus (2)

• Casimir Effect Between World-Branes in Heterotic M-Theory
• On the Uniqueness of String Theory

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Non-Relativistic Superstring Theories
• M-Theory Through the Looking Glass: Tachyon Condensation in the E_8 Heterotic String
• Light-like tachyon condensation in Open String Field Theory
• A stable vacuum of the tachyonic E8 string
• Quantum Effects on Tachyon Dynamics
• A T-Duality of Non-Supersymmetric Heterotic Strings and an implication for Topological Modular Forms
• Supercriticality of a Class of Critical String Cosmological Solutions
• Tachyon - Dilaton driven Inflation as an alpha' - non-perturbative solution in First Quantized String Cosmology
• Exact null tachyons from RG flows