72 research outputs found
Decay of long-lived massive closed superstring states: Exact results
We find a one-parameter family of long-lived physical string states in type
II superstring theory. We compute the decay rate by an exact numerical
evaluation of the imaginary part of the one-loop propagator. Remarkably, the
lifetime rapidly increases with the mass. We find a power-law dependence of the
form , where the value of depends on
the parameter characterizing the state. For the most stable state in this
family, one has . The dominant decay channel of these massive
string states is by emission of soft massless particles. The quantum states can
be viewed semiclassically as closed strings which cannot break during the
classical evolution.Comment: Latex, 5 figures, 35 pages (= 23 pages + appendices). Minor
correction
Wavy Strings: Black or Bright?
Recent developments in string theory have brought forth a considerable
interest in time-dependent hair on extended objects. This novel new hair is
typically characterized by a wave profile along the horizon and angular
momentum quantum numbers in the transverse space. In this work, we
present an extensive treatment of such oscillating black objects, focusing on
their geometric properties. We first give a theorem of purely geometric nature,
stating that such wavy hair cannot be detected by any scalar invariant built
out of the curvature and/or matter fields. However, we show that the tidal
forces detected by an infalling observer diverge at the `horizon' of a black
string superposed with a vibration in any mode with . The same
argument applied to longitudinal () waves detects only finite tidal
forces. We also provide an example with a manifestly smooth metric, proving
that at least a certain class of these longitudinal waves have regular
horizons.Comment: 45 pages, latex, no figure
On solvable models of type IIB superstring in NS-NS and R-R plane wave backgrounds
We consider type IIB string in the two plane-wave backgrounds which may be
interpreted as special limits of the AdS_3 x S^3 metric supported by either the
NS-NS or R-R 3-form field. The NS-NS plane-wave string model is equivalent to a
direct generalization of the Nappi-Witten model, with its spectrum being
similar to that of strings in constant magnetic field. The R-R model can be
solved in the light-cone gauge, where the Green-Schwarz action describes 4
massive and 4 massless copies of free bosons and fermions. We find the spectra
of the two string models and study the asymptotic density of states. We also
discuss a more general class of exactly solvable plane-wave models with reduced
supersymmetry which is obtained by adding twists in two spatial 2-planes.Comment: 36 pages, harvmac. v2: discussion of equivalence of the supergravity
parts of the spectra of the NS-NS and R-R models added in sect.5.3; v3: added
remark on periodicity of the NS-NS spectrum; v4: minor correction in sect.6.
(Twisted) Toroidal Compactification of pp-Waves
The maximally supersymmetric type IIB pp-wave is compactified on spatial
circles, with and without an auxiliary rotational twist. All spatial circles of
constant radius are identified. Without the twist, an S compactification
can preserve 24, 20 or 16 supercharges. compactifications can preserve
20, 18 or 16 supercharges; compactifications can preserve 18 or 16
supercharges and higher compactifications preserve 16 supercharges. The
worldsheet theory of this background is discussed. The T-dual and
decompactified type IIA and M-theoretic solutions which preserve 24
supercharges are given. Some comments are made regarding the AdS parent and the
CFT description.Comment: 22 pages REVTeX 4 and AMSLaTeX. v3: References and a paragraph on
nine dimensional Killing spinors were added. v4: A few typos corrected and a
footnote was modifie
Circular Semiclassical String solutions on Confining AdS/CFT Backgrounds
We study multiwrapped circular string pulsating in the radial direction of
AdS black hole. We compute the energy of this string as a function of a large
quantum number n. One then could associate it with energy and a quantum number
of states in the dual finite temperature {\cal N}=4 SYM theory as well as three
dimensional pure gauge theory. We observe that the n dependence of the energy
has a universal form. We have also considered pulsating string in the
background of the near-extremal D4-brane solution. Circular pulsating membrane
in M-theory on AdS_7\times S^4 has also been studied.Comment: 14 pages, latex, v2: typos corrected, refs. adde
Generalizations of pp-wave spacetimes in higher dimensions
We shall investigate -dimensional Lorentzian spacetimes in which all of
the scalar invariants constructed from the Riemann tensor and its covariant
derivatives are zero. These spacetimes are higher-dimensional generalizations
of -dimensional pp-wave spacetimes, which have been of interest recently in
the context of string theory in curved backgrounds in higher dimensions.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex, to appear in Physical Review
A New Cosmological Scenario in String Theory
We consider new cosmological solutions with a collapsing, an intermediate and
an expanding phase. The boundary between the expanding (collapsing) phase and
the intermediate phase is seen by comoving observers as a cosmological past
(future) horizon. The solutions are naturally embedded in string and M-theory.
In the particular case of a two-dimensional cosmology, space-time is flat with
an identification under boost and translation transformations. We consider the
corresponding string theory orbifold and calculate the modular invariant
one-loop partition function. In this case there is a strong parallel with the
BTZ black hole. The higher dimensional cosmologies have a time-like curvature
singularity in the intermediate region. In some cases the string coupling can
be made small throughout all of space-time but string corrections become
important at the singularity. This happens where string winding modes become
light which could resolve the singularity. The new proposed space-time casual
structure could have implications for cosmology, independently of string
theory.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures; v2: Added new subsection relating
two-dimensional model to BTZ black hole, typos corrected and references
added; v3: minor corrections, PRD versio
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