Orientifolds, RG Flows, and Closed String Tachyons

Abstract

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.

15 pages, 2 figures, uses harvmac; v2: references added

References in corpus (5)

• Non-Supersymmetric Type I Strings with Zero Vacuum Energy
• Tachyon-free Orientifolds of Type 0B Strings in Various Dimensions
• On Brane-Antibrane Forces
• A Note on Orientifolds and Dualities of Type 0B String Theory
• Tachyon Stabilization in the AdS/CFT Correspondence

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Self-tuning flat domain walls in 5d gravity and string theory
• Don't Panic! Closed String Tachyons in ALE Spacetimes
• A Resolution of the Cosmological Singularity with Orientifolds
• Time-dependent Orbifolds and String Cosmology
• Things Fall Apart: Topology Change from Winding Tachyons
• The Tachyon at the End of the Universe
• The problematic backreaction of SUSY-breaking branes
• Closed String Tachyons, AdS/CFT, and Large N QCD
• Orbifolds as Melvin Geometry
• Random walks and the Hagedorn transition
• Closed String Tachyons and Semi-Classical Instabilities
• On the Classical Stability of Orientifold Cosmologies
• On Condensation of Closed-string Tachyons
• Uplifting Anti-D6-brane
• O(N) and USp(N) QCD from String Theory
• Aspects of Type 0 String Theory
• On the Critical Behavior of D1-brane Theories
• NS-branes in 5d brane world models
• D-brane annihilation, renormalization-group flow and non-linear $\sigma$-model for the ADHM construction