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arXiv · hep-th/0506180

A Matrix Big Bang

Ben Craps·Savdeep Sethi·Erik Verlinde
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Abstract

The light-like linear dilaton background represents a particularly simple time-dependent 1/2 BPS solution of critical type IIA superstring theory in ten dimensions. Its lift to M-theory, as well as its Einstein frame metric, are singular in the sense that the geometry is geodesically incomplete and the Riemann tensor diverges along a light-like subspace of codimension one. We study this background as a model for a big bang type singularity in string theory/M-theory. We construct the dual Matrix theory description in terms of a (1+1)-d supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on a time-dependent world-sheet given by the Milne orbifold of (1+1)-d Minkowski space. Our model provides a framework in which the physics of the singularity appears to be under control.

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Ben Craps, Savdeep Sethi, Erik Verlinde. 2005-06-28. A Matrix Big Bang. https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708%2F2005%2F10%2F005

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