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

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.Comment: 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

D-Sphalerons and the Topology of String Configuration Space

We show that unstable D-branes play the role of ``D-sphalerons'' in string theory. Their existence implies that the configuration space of Type II string theory has a complicated homotopy structure, similar to that of an infinite Grassmannian. In particular, the configuration space of Type IIA (IIB) string theory on $\R^{10}$ has non-trivial homotopy groups $\pi_k$ for all $k$ even (odd).Comment: 29pp, harvmac (b),trivial typo fixe

A Small Cosmological Constant and Backreaction of Non-Finetuned Parameters

We include the backreaction on the warped geometry induced by non-finetuned parameters in a two domain-wall set-up to obtain an exponentially small Cosmological Constant $\Lambda_4$. The mechanism to suppress the Cosmological Constant involves one classical fine-tuning as compared to an infinity of finetunings at the quantum level in standard D=4 field theory.Comment: 13 pages, minor corrections and references adde

Orientifold and Type II Dual Pairs

In this paper we present a symmetry of a toroidally compactified type II string theory. This symmetry has the interpretaion that it interchanges the left and the right-moving worldsheet coordinates and reverses the orientations of some of the spatial coordinates. We also identify another discrete symmetry of the type II theory which is related to the above one by a nontrivial U-duality element of string theory. This symmetry, however, has trivial action on the worldsheet coordinates and corresponds to an improper T-duality rotation. We then construct examples of type II dual pairs in four dimensions by modding out the known type II dual pairs by the above symmetries. We show the explicit matching of the spectrum and supersymmetries in these examples.Comment: 17 page

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

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

The Effective Potential And Additional Large Radius Compactified Space-Time Dimensions

The consequences of large radius extra space-time compactified dimensions on the four dimensional one loop effective potential are investigated for a model which includes scalar self interactions and Yukawa coupling to fermions. The Kaluza-Klein tower of states associated with the extra compact dimensions shifts the location of the effective potential minimum and modifies its curvature. The dependence of these effects on the radius of the extra dimension is illustrated for various choices of coupling constants and masses. For large radii, the consequence of twisting the fermion boundary condition on the compactified dimensions is numerically found to produce but a negligible effect on the effective potential.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 6 Postscript figure

Strings on AdS2 and the high-energy limit of noncritical M-theory

Abstract. Noncritical M-theory in 2+1 dimensions has been defined as a double-scaling limit of a nonrelativistic Fermi liquid on a flat two-dimensional plane. Here we study this noncritical M-theory in the limit of high energies, analogous to the alpha' --> infinity limit of string theory. In the related case of two-dimensional Type 0A strings, it has been argued that the conformal alpha' --> infinity limit leads to AdS_2 with a propagating fermion whose mass is set by the value of the RR flux. Here we provide evidence that in the high-energy limit, the natural ground state of noncritical M-theory similarly describes the AdS_2 x S1 spacetime, with a massless propagating fermion. We argue that the spacetime effective theory in this background is captured by a topological higher-spin extension of conformal Chern-Simons gravity in 2+1 dimensions, consistently coupled to a massless Dirac field. Intriguingly, the two-dimensional plane populated by the original nonrelativistic fermions is essentially the twistor space associated with the symmetry group of the AdS_2 x S1 spacetime; thus, at least in the high-energy limit, noncritical M-theory can be nonperturbatively described as a"Fermi liquid on twistor space.'&#39

Non-Abelian Flat Directions in a Minimal Superstring Standard Model

Recently, by studying exact flat directions of non-Abelian singlet fields, we demonstrated the existence of free fermionic heterotic-string models in which the SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y-charged matter spectrum, just below the string scale, consists solely of the MSSM spectrum. In this paper we generalize the analysis to include VEVs of non-Abelian fields. We find several, MSSM-producing, exact non-Abelian flat directions, which are the first such examples in the literature. We examine the possibility that hidden sector condensates lift the flat directions.Comment: 14 pages. Standard Late

Anisotropic scale invariant cosmology

We study a possibility of anisotropic scale invariant cosmology. It is shown that within the conventional Einstein gravity, the violation of the null energy condition is necessary. We construct an example based on a ghost condensation model that violates the null energy condition. The cosmological solution necessarily contains at least one contracting spatial direction as in the Kasner solution. Our cosmology is conjectured to be dual to, if any, a non-unitary anisotropic scale invariant Euclidean field theory. We investigate simple correlation functions of the dual theory by using the holographic computation. After compactification of the contracting direction, our setup may yield a dual field theory description of the winding tachyon condensation that might solve the singularity of big bang/crunch of the universe.Comment: 12 pages, v2: reference adde