arXiv subjects

Barton Zwiebach

Publications and source records attributed to Barton Zwiebach.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

One-Loop Riemann Surfaces in Schnabl Gauge

Due to a peculiar behavior at the open string midpoint, loop diagrams in Schnabl gauge were expected to fail to produce the relevant closed string moduli. We find that closed string moduli are generated because the Riemann surfaces are built with slanted wedges: semi-infinite strips whose edges have parameterizations related by scaling. We examine in detail one-loop string diagrams and find that the closed string modulus is always produced. Moreover, the conformal maps simplify so greatly that both closed and open moduli become simple calculable functions of the Schwinger parameters, a simplification that occurs neither in Siegel gauge nor in light-cone gauge.

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arXiv2008

Analytic Solutions for Marginal Deformations in Open String Field Theory

We develop a calculable analytic approach to marginal deformations in open string field theory using wedge states with operator insertions. For marginal operators with regular operator products, we construct analytic solutions to all orders in the deformation parameter. In particular, we construct an exact time-dependent solution that describes D-brane decay and incorporates all alpha' corrections. For marginal operators with singular operator products, we construct solutions by regularizing the singularity and adding counterterms. We explicitly carry out the procedure to third order in the deformation parameter.

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arXiv2007

Linear b-Gauges for Open String Fields

Motivated by Schnabl's gauge choice, we explore open string perturbation theory in gauges where a linear combination of antighost oscillators annihilates the string field. We find that in these linear b-gauges different gauge conditions are needed at different ghost numbers. We derive the full propagator and prove the formal properties which guarantee that the Feynman diagrams reproduce the correct on-shell amplitudes. We find that these properties can fail due to the need to regularize the propagator, and identify a large class of linear b-gauges for which they hold rigorously. In these gauges the propagator has a non-anomalous Schwinger representation and builds Riemann surfaces by adding strip-like domains. Projector-based gauges, like Schnabl's, are not in this class of gauges but we construct a family of regular linear b-gauges which interpolate between Siegel gauge and Schnabl gauge.

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arXiv2007

The off-shell Veneziano amplitude in Schnabl gauge

We give a careful definition of the open string propagator in Schnabl gauge and present its worldsheet interpretation. The propagator requires two Schwinger parameters and contains the BRST operator. It builds surfaces by gluing strips of variable width to the left and to the right of off-shell states with contracted or expanded local frames. We evaluate explicitly the four-point amplitude of off-shell tachyons. The computation involves a subtle boundary term, crucial to enforce the correct exchange symmetries. Interestingly, the familiar on-shell physics emerges even though string diagrams produce Riemann surfaces more than once. Off-shell, the amplitudes do not factorize over intermediate on-shell states.

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arXiv2006

Analytic Solutions for Tachyon Condensation with General Projectors

The tachyon vacuum solution of Schnabl is based on the wedge states, which close under the star product and interpolate between the identity state and the sliver projector. We use reparameterizations to solve the long-standing problem of finding an analogous family of states for arbitrary projectors and to construct analytic solutions based on them. The solutions simplify for special projectors and allow explicit calculations in the level expansion. We test the solutions in detail for a one-parameter family of special projectors that includes the sliver and the butterfly. Reparameterizations further allow a one-parameter deformation of the solution for a given projector, and in a certain limit the solution takes the form of an operator insertion on the projector. We discuss implications of our work for vacuum string field theory.

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arXiv2006

Solving Open String Field Theory with Special Projectors

Schnabl recently found an analytic expression for the string field tachyon condensate using a gauge condition adapted to the conformal frame of the sliver projector. We propose that this construction is more general. The sliver is an example of a special projector, a projector such that the Virasoro operator Ł_0 and its BPZ adjoint Ł*_0 obey the algebra [Ł_0, Ł*_0] = s (Ł_0 + Ł*_0), with s a positive real constant. All special projectors provide abelian subalgebras of string fields, closed under both the *-product and the action of Ł_0. This structure guarantees exact solvability of a ghost number zero string field equation. We recast this infinite recursive set of equations as an ordinary differential equation that is easily solved. The classification of special projectors is reduced to a version of the Riemann-Hilbert problem, with piecewise constant data on the boundary of a disk.

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arXiv2005

Dilaton Deformations in Closed String Field Theory

The dilaton theorem implies that the contribution to the dilaton potential from cubic interactions of all levels must be cancelled by the elementary quartic self-coupling of dilatons. We use this expectation to test the quartic structure of closed string field theory and to study the rules for level expansion. We explain how to use the results of Moeller to compute quartic interactions of states that, just like the dilaton, are neither primary nor have a simple ghost dependence. Our analysis of cancellations is made richer by discussing simultaneous dilaton and marginal deformations. We find evidence for two facts: as the level is increased quartic interactions become suppressed and closed string field theory may be able to describe arbitrarily large dilaton deformations.

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arXiv2005

A Closed String Tachyon Vacuum ?

In bosonic closed string field theory the "tachyon potential" is a potential for the tachyon, the dilaton, and an infinite set of massive fields. Earlier computations of the potential did not include the dilaton and the critical point formed by the quadratic and cubic interactions was destroyed by the quartic tachyon term. We include the dilaton contributions to the potential and find that a critical point survives and appears to become more shallow. We are led to consider the existence of a closed string tachyon vacuum, a critical point with zero action that represents a state where space-time ceases to be dynamical. Some evidence for this interpretation is found from the study of the coupled metric-dilaton-tachyon effective field equations, which exhibit rolling solutions in which the dilaton runs to strong coupling and the Einstein metric undergoes collapse.

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arXiv2005

Rolling Closed String Tachyons and the Big Crunch

We study the low-energy effective field equations that couple gravity, the dilaton, and the bulk closed string tachyon of bosonic closed string theory. We establish that whenever the tachyon induces the rolling process, the string metric remains fixed while the dilaton rolls to strong coupling. For negative definite potentials we show that this results in an Einstein metric that crunches the universe in finite time. This behavior is shown to be rather generic even if the potentials are not negative definite. The solutions are reminiscent of those in the collapse stage of a cyclic universe cosmology where scalar field potentials with negative energies play a central role.

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arXiv2005

Testing Closed String Field Theory with Marginal Fields

We study the feasibility of level expansion and test the quartic vertex of closed string field theory by checking the flatness of the potential in marginal directions. The tests, which work out correctly, require the cancellation of two contributions: one from an infinite-level computation with the cubic vertex and the other from a finite-level computation with the quartic vertex. The numerical results suggest that the quartic vertex contributions are comparable or smaller than those of level four fields.

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arXiv2004

WZW-like Action for Heterotic String Field Theory

We complete the construction of the Neveu-Schwarz sector of heterotic string field theory begun in hep-th/0406212 by giving a closed-form expression for the action and gauge transformations. Just as the Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) action for open superstring field theory can be constructed from pure-gauge fields in bosonic open string field theory, our heterotic string field theory action is constructed from pure-gauge fields in bosonic closed string field theory. The construction involves a simple alternative form of the WZW action which is consistent with the algebraic structures of closed string field theory.

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arXiv2004

Heterotic String Field Theory

We construct the Neveu-Schwarz sector of heterotic string field theory using the large Hilbert space of the superghosts and the multi-string products of bosonic closed string field theory. No picture-changing operators are required as in Wess-Zumino-Witten-like open superstring field theory. The action exhibits a novel kind of nonpolynomiality: in addition to terms necessary to cover missing regions of moduli spaces, new terms arise from the boundary of the missing regions and its subspaces. We determine the action up to quintic order and a subset of terms to all orders.

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arXiv2004

D-Branes, Tachyons, and String Field Theory

In these notes we provide a pedagogical introduction to the subject of tachyon condensation in Witten's cubic bosonic open string field theory. We use both the low-energy Yang-Mills description and the language of string field theory to explain the problem of tachyon condensation on unstable D-branes. We give a self-contained introduction to open string field theory using both conformal field theory and overlap integrals. Our main subjects are the Sen conjectures on tachyon condensation in open string field theory and the evidence that supports these conjectures. We conclude with a discussion of vacuum string field theory and projectors of the star-algebra of open string fields. We comment on the possible role of string field theory in the construction of a nonperturbative formulation of string theory that captures all possible string backgrounds.

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arXiv2004

Twisted Tachyon Condensation in Closed String Field Theory

We consider twisted tachyons on C/Z_N orbifolds of bosonic closed string theory. It has been conjectured that these tachyonic instabilities correspond to decays of the orbifolds into flat space or into orbifolds with smaller deficit angles. We examine this conjecture using closed string field theory, with the string field truncated to low-level tachyons. We compute the tachyon potentials for C/Z_2 and C/Z_3 orbifolds and find critical points at depths that generate about 70% of the expected change in the deficit angle. We find that both twisted fields and untwisted modes localized near the apex of the cone acquire vacuum expectation values and contribute to the potential.

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arXiv2003

Ghost Structure and Closed Strings in Vacuum String Field Theory

We complete the construction of vacuum string field theory by proposing a canonical choice of ghost kinetic term -- a local insertion of the ghost field at the string midpoint with an infinite normalization. This choice, supported by level expansion studies in the Siegel gauge, allows a simple analytic treatment of the ghost sector of the string field equations. As a result, solutions are just projectors, such as the sliver, of an auxiliary CFT built by combining the matter part with a twisted version of the ghost conformal theory. Level expansion experiments lead to surprising new projectors -- butterfly surface states, whose analytical expressions are obtained. With the help of a suitable open-closed string vertex we define open-string gauge invariant operators parametrized by on-shell closed string states. We use regulated vacuum string field theory to sketch how pure closed string amplitudes on surfaces without boundaries arise as correlators of such gauge invariant operators.

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arXiv2002

Dynamics with Infinitely Many Time Derivatives and Rolling Tachyons

Both in string field theory and in p-adic string theory the equations of motion involve infinite number of time derivatives. We argue that the initial value problem is qualitatively different from that obtained in the limit of many time derivatives in that the space of initial conditions becomes strongly constrained. We calculate the energy-momentum tensor and study in detail time dependent solutions representing tachyons rolling on the p-adic string theory potentials. For even potentials we find surprising small oscillations at the tachyon vacuum. These are not conventional physical states but rather anharmonic oscillations with a nontrivial frequency--amplitude relation. When the potentials are not even, small oscillatory solutions around the bottom must grow in amplitude without a bound. Open string field theory resembles this latter case, the tachyon rolls to the bottom and ever growing oscillations ensue. We discuss the significance of these results for the issues of emerging closed strings and tachyon matter.

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arXiv2002

Open String Star as a Continuous Moyal Product

We establish that the open string star product in the zero momentum sector can be described as a continuous tensor product of mutually commuting two dimensional Moyal star products. Let the continuous variable $κ\in [~0,\infty)$ parametrize the eigenvalues of the Neumann matrices; then the noncommutativity parameter is given by $θ(κ) =2\tanh(πκ/4)$. For each $κ$, the Moyal coordinates are a linear combination of even position modes, and the Fourier transform of a linear combination of odd position modes. The commuting coordinate at $κ=0$ is identified as the momentum carried by half the string. We discuss the relation to Bars' work, and attempt to write the string field action as a noncommutative field theory.

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arXiv2002

Star Algebra Projectors

Surface states are open string field configurations which arise from Riemann surfaces with a boundary and form a subalgebra of the star algebra. We find that a general class of star algebra projectors arise from surface states where the open string midpoint reaches the boundary of the surface. The projector property of the state and the split nature of its wave-functional arise because of a nontrivial feature of conformal maps of nearly degenerate surfaces. Moreover, all such projectors are invariant under constant and opposite translations of their half-strings. We show that the half-string states associated to these projectors are themselves surface states. In addition to the sliver, we identify other interesting projectors. These include a butterfly state, which is the tensor product of half-string vacua, and a nothing state, where the Riemann surface collapses.

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