Geometric Tachyon to Universal Open String Tachyon

A system of k Neveu-Schwarz (NS) 5-branes of type II string theory with one transverse direction compactified on a circle admits various unstable D-brane systems, - some with geometric instability arising out of being placed at a point of unstable equilibrium in space and some with the usual open string tachyonic instability but no geometric instability. We discuss the effect of NS 5-branes on the descent relations among these branes and their physical interpretation in the T-dual ALF spaces. We argue that if the tachyon potential controlling these descent relations obeys certain conditions, then in certain region in the parameter space labelling the background the two types of unstable branes become identical via a second order phase transition, with the geometric tachyon in one system getting mapped to the open string tachyon of the other system. This would provide a geometric description of the tachyonic instability of the usual non-BPS Dp-brane in ten dimensional flat space-time.Comment: LaTeX file, 30 page

Ricci-flat deformation of orbifolds and localized tachyonic modes

We study Ricci-flat deformations of orbifolds in type II theory. We obtain a simple formula for mass corrections to the twisted modes due to the deformations, and apply it to originally tachyonic and massless states in several examples. In the case of supersymmetric orbifolds, we find that tachyonic states appear when the deformation breaks all the supersymmetries. We also study nonsupersymmetric orbifolds C^2/Z_{2N(2N+1)}, which is T-dual to N type 0 NS5-branes. For N>=2, we compute mass corrections for states, which have string scale tachyonic masses. We find that the corrected masses coincide to ones obtained by solving the wave equation for the tachyon field in the smeared type 0 NS5-brane background geometry. For N=1, we show that the unstable mode representing the bubble creation is the unique tachyonic mode.Comment: 20 pages, minor collection

Rolling Tachyon Solution in Vacuum String Field Theory

We construct a time-dependent solution in vacuum string field theory and investigate whether the solution can be regarded as a rolling tachyon solution. First, compactifying one space direction on a circle of radius R, we construct a space-dependent solution given as an infinite number of *-products of a string field with center-of-mass momentum dependence of the form e^{-b p^2/4}. Our time-dependent solution is obtained by an inverse Wick rotation of the compactified space direction. We focus on one particular component field of the solution, which takes the form of the partition function of a Coulomb system on a circle with temperature R^2. Analyzing this component field both analytically and numerically using Monte Carlo simulation, we find that the parameter b in the solution must be set equal to zero for the solution to approach a finite value in the large time limit x^0\to\infty. We also explore the possibility that the self-dual radius R=\sqrt{\alpha'} is a phase transition point of our Coulomb system.Comment: 39 pages, 17 figures, v3: references adde

Is the String Coupling Constant invariant under T-duality?

It is well known that under T-duality the sigma model dilaton (which is normally thought to be related to the string coupling constant through the simple formula $\kappa = exp$), undergoes an additive shift. On the other hand, Kugo and Zwiebach, using a simplified form of string field theory, claim that the string coupling constant does not change under the T-duality. Obviously, what seems to happen is that two different coupling constants, associated to different dilatons, are used. In this contribution we shall try to clarify this, and related issues.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pag. Contributions to Santa Margherita and S. Petersburg meeting

Measuring 14 elemental abundances with R=1,800 LAMOST spectra

The LAMOST survey has acquired low-resolution spectra (R=1,800) for 5 million stars across the Milky Way, far more than any current stellar survey at a corresponding or higher spectral resolution. It is often assumed that only very few elemental abundances can be measured from such low-resolution spectra, limiting their utility for Galactic archaeology studies. However, Ting et al. (2017) used ab initio models to argue that low-resolution spectra should enable precision measurements of many elemental abundances, at least in theory. Here we verify this claim in practice by measuring the relative abundances of 14 elements from LAMOST spectra with a precision of $\lesssim$ 0.1 dex for objects with ${\rm S/N}_{\rm LAMOST}$ > 30 (per pixel). We employ a spectral modeling method in which a data-driven model is combined with priors that the model gradient spectra should resemble ab initio spectral models. This approach assures that the data-driven abundance determinations draw on physically sensible features in the spectrum in their predictions and do not just exploit astrophysical correlations among abundances. Our analysis is constrained to the number of elemental abundances measured in the APOGEE survey, which is the source of the training labels. Obtaining high quality/resolution spectra for a subset of LAMOST stars to measure more elemental abundances as training labels and then applying this method to the full LAMOST catalog will provide a sample with more than 20 elemental abundances that is an order of magnitude larger than current high-resolution surveys, substantially increasing the sample size for Galactic archaeology.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, ApJ (Accepted for publication- 2017 October 9

BPS mass spectrum from D-brane action

We derive the BPS mass formulae of the Dirichlet branes from the Born-Infeld type action. BPS saturation is realized when the brane has the minimal volume while keeping the appropriate winding numbers. We apply the idea to two cases, type IIA superstring compactified on $T^4$ and $K3$. The result is consistent with the string duality, and the expected spectrum for the BPS states is reproduced.Comment: 11 pages, latex, no figur

Open String Amplitudes in Various Gauges

Recently, Schnabl constructed the analytic solution of the open string tachyon. Subsequently, the absence of the physical states at the vacuum was proved. The development relies heavily on the use of the gauge condition different from the ordinary one. It was shown that the choice of gauge simplifies the analysis drastically. When we perform the calculation of the amplitudes in Schnabl gauge, we find that the off-shell amplitudes of the Schnabl gauge is still very complicated. In this paper, we propose the use of the propagator in the modified Schnabl gauge and show that this modified use of the Schnabl gauge simplifies the computation of the off-shell amplitudes drastically. We also compute the amplitudes of open superstring in this gauge.Comment: 23 pages, minor correction

Tachyon Tunnelling in D-brane-anti-D-brane

Using the tachyon DBI action proposal for the effective theory of non-coincident D$_p$-brane-anti-D$_p$-brane system, we study the decay of this system in the tachyon channel. We assume that the branes separation is held fixed, i.e. no throat formation, and then find the bounce solution which describe the decay of the system from false to the true vacuum of the tachyon potential. We shall show that due to the non-standard form of the kinetic term in the effective action, the thin wall approximation for calculating the bubble nucleation rate gives a result which is independent of the branes separation. This unusual result might indicate that the true decay of this metastable system should be via a solution that represents a throat formation as well as the tachyon tunneling.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, Latex file, minor changes, reference adde