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arXiv · 0709.2162

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

Petr Horava·Cynthia A. Keeler
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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.

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Petr Horava, Cynthia A. Keeler. 2007-11-27. Closed-String Tachyon Condensation and the Worldsheet Super-Higgs Effect. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.100.051601

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