Quantum Gravity in Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes from Unstable D-Branes

Roji Pius

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arXiv · 2610.11493

Quantum Gravity in Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes from Unstable D-Branes

Roji Pius

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Abstract

We present a non-perturbative formulation of quantum gravity in asymptotically flat spacetimes using Witten's cubic open string field theory (OSFT) on unstable D-branes. Given that the massless spin-2 sector of the closed string spectrum inherently encodes the degrees of freedom of quantum gravity, we establish this connection by mapping on-shell closed string excitations directly to gauge-invariant operators in OSFT, realizing a concrete flat-space analogue of the AdS/CFT correspondence. By evaluating the OSFT correlation functions of these operators perturbatively around the tachyon vacuum, we systematically reproduce the all-orders genus expansion of the closed string S-matrix for the associated states. This demonstrates that closed string theory-and thus quantum gravity-emerges dynamically from the open string tachyon vacuum, establishing Witten's OSFT as a fully calculable, non-perturbative framework for flat-space quantum gravity.

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Roji Pius. 2026-10-08. Quantum Gravity in Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes from Unstable D-Branes. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11493

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