arXiv subjects

Yuji Sugawara

Publications and source records attributed to Yuji Sugawara.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Mirrorfolds with K3 Fibrations

We study a class of non-geometric string vacua realized as completely soluble superconformal field theory (SCFT). These models are defined as `interpolating orbifolds' of $K3 \times S^1$ by the mirror transformation acting on the $K3$ fiber combined with the half-shift on the $S^1$-base. They are variants of the T-folds, the interpolating orbifolds by T-duality transformations, and thus may be called `mirrorfolds'. Starting with arbitrary (compact or non-compact) Gepner models for the $K3$ fiber, we construct modular invariant partition functions of general mirrorfold models. In the case of compact $K3$ fiber the mirrorfolds only yield non-supersymmetric string vacua. They exhibit IR instability due to winding tachyon condensation which is similar to the Scherk-Schwarz type circle compactification. When the fiber SCFT is non-compact (say, the ALE space in the simplest case), on the other hand, both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric vacua can be constructed. The non-compact non-supersymmetric mirrorfolds can get stabilised at the level of string perturbation theory. We also find that in the non-compact supersymmeric mirrorfolds D-branes are {\em always} non-BPS. These D-branes can get stabilized against both open- and closed-string marginal deformations.

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arXiv2008

Modular Forms and Elliptic Genera for ALE Spaces

When we describe string propagation on non-compact or singular Calabi-Yau manifolds by CFT, continuous as well as discrete representations appear in the theory. These representations mix in an intricate way under the modular transformations. In this article, we propose a method of combining discrete and continuous representations so that the resulting combinations have a simpler modular behavior and can be used as conformal blocks of the theory. We compute elliptic genera of ALE spaces and obtain results which agree with those suggested from the decompactification of K3 surface. Consistency of our approach is assured by some remarkable identity of theta functions. We include in the appendix some new materials on the representation theory of ${\cal N}=4$ superconformal algebra.

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arXiv2008

D-branes in T-fold conformal field theory

We investigate boundary dynamics of orbifold conformal field theory involving T-duality twists. Such models typically appear in contexts of non-geometric string compactifications that are called monodrofolds or T-folds in recent literature. We use the framework of boundary conformal field theory to analyse the models from a microscopic world-sheet perspective. In these backgrounds there are two kinds of D-branes that are analogous to bulk and fractional branes in standard orbifold models. The bulk D-branes in T-folds allow intuitive geometrical interpretations and are consistent with the classical analysis based on the doubled torus formalism. The fractional branes, on the other hand, are `non-geometric' at any point in the moduli space and their geometric counterparts seem to be missing in the doubled torus analysis. We compute cylinder amplitudes between the bulk and fractional branes, and find that the lightest modes of the open string spectra show intriguing non-linear dependence on the moduli (location of the brane or value of the Wilson line), suggesting that the physics of T-folds, when D-branes are involved, could deviate from geometric backgrounds even at low energies. We also extend our analysis to the models with SU(2) WZW fibre at arbitrary levels.

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arXiv2007

Liouville Field, Modular Forms and Elliptic Genera

When we describe non-compact or singular Calabi-Yau manifolds by CFT, continuous as well as discrete representations appear in the theory. These representations mix in an intricate way under the modular transformations. In this article, we propose a method of combining discrete and continuous representations so that the resulting combinations have a simpler modular behavior and can be used as conformal blocks of the theory. We compute elliptic genera of ALE spaces and obtain results which agree with those suggested from the decompactification of K3 surface. Consistency of our approach is assured by some remarkable identity of theta functions whose proof, by D. Zagier, is included in an appendix.

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arXiv2006

SL(2,R)/U(1) Supercoset and Elliptic Genera of Non-compact Calabi-Yau Manifolds

We first discuss the relationship between the SL(2;R)/U(1) supercoset and N=2 Liouville theory and make a precise correspondence between their representations. We shall show that the discrete unitary representations of SL(2;R)/U(1) theory correspond exactly to those massless representations of N=2 Liouville theory which are closed under modular transformations and studied in our previous work hep-th/0311141. It is known that toroidal partition functions of SL(2;R)/U(1) theory (2D Black Hole) contain two parts, continuous and discrete representations. The contribution of continuous representations is proportional to the space-time volume and is divergent in the infinite-volume limit while the part of discrete representations is volume-independent. In order to see clearly the contribution of discrete representations we consider elliptic genus which projects out the contributions of continuous representations: making use of the SL(2;R)/U(1), we compute elliptic genera for various non-compact space-times such as the conifold, ALE spaces, Calabi-Yau 3-folds with A_n singularities etc. We find that these elliptic genera in general have a complex modular property and are not Jacobi forms as opposed to the cases of compact Calabi-Yau manifolds.

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arXiv2006

The Nothing at the Beginning of the Universe Made Precise

We propose a new worldsheet approach to the McGreevy-Silverstein proposal: resolution of spacelike singularity via Scherk-Schwarz compactification and winding string condensation therein. Our proposal is built upon so-called three parameter sine-Liouville theory, which has useful features and could be solvable in conformal field theory method. Utilizing standard Wick rotation, we compute string pair production rate exactly in terms of renormalized worldsheet cosmological constant and find that the production rate is finite for six or less spacetime dimensions. We also find that the sine-Liouville potential excises string excitation in the asymptotic past, and that such "Nothing state" is realizable for a range of sine-Liouville coupling constants. We compute one loop vacuum-to-vacuum transition amplitude and again detect presence of the "Nothing state". We also survey various worldsheet approaches to the tachyon condensation based on timelike Liouville theory. We point out that string theory on a conifold provides the upper critical dimension for realizing the "Nothing state", thus making contact with the blackhole / string transition point.

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arXiv2006

D-Brane Propagation in Two-Dimensional Black Hole Geometries

We study propagation of D0-brane in two-dimensional Lorentzian black hole backgrounds by the method of boundary conformal field theory of SL(2,R)/U(1) supercoset at level k. Typically, such backgrounds arise as near-horizon geometries of k coincident non-extremal NS5-branes, where 1/k measures curvature of the backgrounds in string unit and hence size of string worldsheet effects. At classical level, string worldsheet effects are suppressed and D0-brane propagation in the Lorentzian black hole geometry is simply given by the Wick rotation of D1-brane contour in the Euclidean black hole geometry. Taking account of string worldsheet effects, boundary state of the Lorentzian D0-brane is formally constructible via Wick rotation from that of the Euclidean D1-brane. However, the construction is subject to ambiguities in boundary conditions. We propose exact boundary states describing the D0-brane, and clarify physical interpretations of various boundary states constructed from different boundary conditions. As it falls into the black hole, the D0-brane radiates off to the horizon and to the infinity. From the boundary states constructed, we compute physical observables of such radiative process. We find that part of the radiation to infinity is in effective thermal distribution at the Hawking temperature. We also find that part of the radiation to horizon is in the Hagedorn distribution, dominated by massive, highly non-relativistic closed string states, much like the tachyon matter. Remarkably, such distribution emerges only after string worldsheet effects are taken exactly into account. From these results, we observe that nature of the radiation distribution changes dramatically across the conifold geometry k=1 (k=3 for the bosonic case), exposing the `string - black hole transition' therein.

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arXiv2006

Unitarity Meets Channel-Duality for Rolling / Decaying D-Branes

Investigations for decay of unstable D-brane and rolling of accelerated D-brane dynamics have revealed that various proposed prescriptions give different result for spectral amplitudes and observables. Here, we study them with particular attention to unitarity and open-closed channel duality. From "ab initio" derivation in the open string channel, both in Euclidean and Lorentzian worldsheet approaches, we find heretofore overlooked contribution to the spectral amplitudes and obervables. The contribution is fortuitously absent for decay of unstable D-brane, but is present for rolling of accelerated D-brane. We finally show that the contribution is imperative for ensuring unitarity and optical theorem at each order in string loop expansion.

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arXiv2005

Conifold Type Singularities, N=2 Liouville and SL(2;R)/U(1) Theories

In this paper we discuss various aspects of non-compact models of CFT of the type: $ \prod_{j=1}^{N_L} {N=2 Liouville theory}_j \otimes \prod_{i=1}^{N_M} {N=2 minimal model}_i $ and $ \prod_{j=1}^{N_L}{SL(2;R)/U(1) supercoset}_j \otimes \prod_{i=1}^{N_M} {N=2 minimal model}_i $. These models are related to each other by T-duality. Such string vacua are expected to describe non-compact Calabi-Yau compactifications, typically ALE fibrations over (weighted) projective spaces. We find that when the Liouville ($SL(2;R)/U(1)$) theory is coupled to minimal models, there exist only (c,c), (a,a) ((c,a), (a,c))-type of massless states in CY 3 and 4-folds and the theory possesses only complex (Kähler) structure deformations. Thus the space-time has the characteristic feature of a conifold type singularity whose deformation (resolution) is given by the N=2 Liouville (SL(2;R)/U(1)) theory. Spectra of compact BPS D-branes determined from the open string sector are compared with those of massless moduli. We compute the open string Witten index and determine intersection numbers of vanishing cycles. We also study non-BPS branes of the theory that are natural extensions of the ``unstable B-branes'' of the SU(2) WZW model in hep-th/0105038.

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arXiv2004

Boundary States for the Rolling D-branes in NS5 Background

In this paper we construct the time dependent boundary states describing the ``rolling D-brane solutions'' in the NS5 background discovered recently by Kutasov by means of the classical DBI analysis. We first survey some aspects of non-compact branes in the NS5 background based on known boundary states in the N=2 Liouville theory. We consider two types of non-compact branes, one of which is BPS and the other is non-BPS but stable. Then we clarify how to Wick-rotate the non-BPS one appropriately. We show that the Wick-rotated boundary state realizes the correct trajectory of rolling D-brane in the classical limit, and leads to well behaved spectral densities of open strings due to the existence of non-trivial damping factors of energy. We further study the cylinder amplitudes and the emission rates of massive closed string modes.

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arXiv2004

Modular Bootstrap for Boundary N=2 Liouville Theory

We study the boundary N=2 Liouville theory based on the ``modular bootstrap'' approach. As fundamental conformal blocks we introduce the ``extended characters'' that are defined as the proper sums over spectral flows of irreducible characters of the N=2 superconformal algebra (SCA) and clarify their modular transformation properties in models with rational central charges. We then try to classify the Cardy states describing consistent D-branes based on the modular data. We construct the analogues of ZZ-branes (hep-th/0101152), localized at the strong coupling region, and the FZZT-branes (hep-th/0001012, hep-th/0009138), which extend along the Liouville direction. The former is shown to play important roles to describe the BPS D-branes wrapped around vanishing cycles in deformed Calabi-Yau singularities, reproducing the correct intersection numbers of vanishing cycles. We also discuss the non-BPS D-branes in 2d type 0 (and type II) string vacua composed of the N=2 Liouville with $\hat{c}(\equiv c/3)=5$. Unstable D0-branes are found as the ZZ-brane analogues mentioned above, and the FZZT-brane analogues are stable due to the existence of mass gap despite the lack of GSO projection.

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arXiv2003

Thermal Partition Functions for S-branes

We calculate the thermal partition functions of open strings on the S-brane backgrounds (the bouncing or rolling tachyon backgrounds) both in the bosonic and superstring cases. According to hep-th/0302146, we consider the discretized temperatures compatible with the pure imaginary periodicity of tachyon profiles. The ``effective Hagedorn divergence'' is shown to appear no matter how low temperature is chosen (including zero-temperature). This feature is likely to be consistent with the large rate of open string pair production discussed in hep-th/0209090 and also emission of closed string massive modes hep-th/0303139. We also discuss the possibility to remove the divergence by considering the space-like linear dilaton backgrounds as in hep-th/0306132.

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arXiv2003

Branches of N=1 Vacua and Argyres-Douglas Points

We study the N=1 version of Argyres-Douglas (AD) points by making use of the recent developments in understanding the dynamics of the chiral sector of N=1 gauge theories. We shall consider N=1 U(N) gauge theories with an adjoint matter and look for the tree-level superpotential W(x) which reproduces the N=2 AD points via the factorization equation relating the N=1 and N=2 curves. We find that the following superpotentials generate the N=2 AD points: (1) W'(x)=x^N \pm 2Λ^N, (2) W'(x)=x^n, N-1\ge n \ge N/2+1. In case (1) the physics is essentially the same as the N=2 theory even in the presence of the superpotential. There seems to be an underlying structure of N-reduced KP hierarchy in the system. Case (2) occurs at the intersection of a number of N=1 vacua with massless monopoles. This branch of vacua is characterized by having s_+=0 or s_-=0 where s_{\pm} denotes the number of double roots in P_N(x)\pm 2Λ^N. It is possible to show that the mass gap in fact vanishes at this AD point. We conjecture that it represents a new class of N=1 superconformal field theory.

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arXiv2003

Supercoset CFT's for String Theories on Non-compact Special Holonomy Manifolds

We study aspects of superstring vacua of non-compact special holonomy manifolds with conical singularities constructed systematically using soluble N = 1 superconformal field theories (SCFT's). It is known that Einstein homogeneous spaces G/H generate Ricci flat manifolds with special holonomies on their cones R_+ x G/H, when they are endowed with appropriate geometrical structures, namely, the Sasaki-Einstein, tri-Sasakian, nearly Kahler, and weak G_2 structures for SU(n), Sp(n), G_2, and Spin(7) holonomies, respectively. Motivated by this fact, we consider the string vacua of the type: R^{d-1,1} x (N = 1 Liouville) x (N=1 supercoset CFT on G/H) where we use the affine Lie algebras of G and H in order to capture the geometry associated to an Einstein homogeneous space G/H. Remarkably, we find the same number of spacetime and worldsheet SUSY's in our ``CFT cone'' construction as expected from the analysis of geometrical cones over G/H in many examples. We also present an analysis on the possible Liouville potential terms (cosmological constant type operators) which provide the marginal deformations resolving the conical singularities.

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arXiv2003

Thermal Amplitudes in DLCQ Superstrings on PP-Waves

We calculate the thermal partition function of DLCQ superstring on the maximally supersymmetric pp-wave background, which is realized as the Penrose limit of orbifolded $AdS_5\times S^5$ and known to be dual to the $\mathcal{N}=2$ ``large'' quiver gauge theory as shown by S. Mukhi, M. Rangamani and E. Verlinde, hep-th/0204147. Making use of the path-integral technique, we derive the manifestly modular invariant expression and show the equivalence with the free energy of second quantized free superstring on this background. The ``virtual strings'' wound around the temporal circle play essential roles for realizing the modular invariance and for a simple analysis on the Hagedorn temperature. We also calculate the thermal one-loop amplitudes of open strings under the various backgrounds of the supersymmetric time-like and Euclidean D-branes, and confirm the existence of correct open-closed string duality. Furthermore, we extend these thermodynamical analysis to the 6-dimensional DLCQ pp-waves with general RR and NSNS flux. These superstring vacua are similarly derived from the supersymmetric (half SUSY) and non-supersymmetric orbifolds of $AdS_3 \times S^3 \times M^4$ ($M^4 =T^4 $ or $K3$) by the appropriate Penrose limits, giving rise to the SUSY enhancement as in the case of orbifolded $AdS_5 \times S^5$.

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arXiv2003

Thermal Partition Function of Superstring on Compactified PP-Wave

We study the thermal partition function of superstring on the pp-wave background with the circle compactification along a transverse direction. We calculate it in the two ways: the operator formalism and the path-integral calculation. The former gives the finite result with no subtlety of the Wick rotation, which only contains the contributions of physical states. On the other hand, the latter yields the manifestly modular invariant expression, even though we only have the winding modes along the transverse circle (no Kaluza-Klein excitations). We also check the equivalence of these two analyses. The DLCQ approach makes the path-integration quite easy. Remarkably, we find that the contributions from the transverse winding sectors disappear in the non-DLCQ limit, while they indeed contribute in the DLCQ model, depending non-trivially on the longitudinal quantum numbers.

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arXiv2002

Superstring Vacua of 4-dimensional PP-Waves with Enhanced Supersymmetry

We study the superstring vacua constructed from the conformal field theories of the type H_4 x M, where H_4 denotes the super Nappi-Witten model (super WZW model on the 4-dimensional Heisenberg group H_4) and M denotes an arbitrary N=2 rational superconformal field theory with c=9. We define (type II) superstring vacua with 8 supercharges, which are twice as many as those on the backgrounds of H_4 x CY_3. We explicitly construct as physical vertices the space-time SUSY algebra that is a natural extension of H_4 Lie algebra. The spectrum of physical states is classified into two sectors: (1) strings freely propagating along the transverse plane of pp-wave geometry and possessing the integral U(1)_R-charges in M sector, and (2) strings that do not freely propagate along the transverse plane and possess the fractional U(1)_R-charges in M. The former behaves like the string excitations in the usual Calabi-Yau compactification, but the latter defines new sectors without changing the physics in ``bulk'' space. We also analyze the thermal partition functions of these systems, emphasizing the similarity to the DLCQ string theory. As a byproduct we prove the supersymmetric cancellation of conformal blocks in an arbitrary unitary N=2 SCFT of c=12 with the suitable GSO projection.

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arXiv2002

Superstrings on PP-Wave Backgrounds and Symmetric Orbifolds

We study the superstring theory on pp-wave background with NSNS-flux that is realized as the Penrose limit of AdS_3 x S^3 x M^4, where M^4 is T^4 or T^4/Z_2(~ K3). Quantizing this system in the covariant gauge, we explicitly construct the space-time supersymmetry algebra and the complete set of DDF operators. We analyse the spectrum of physical states by using the spectrally flowed representations of current algebra. This spectrum is classified by the ``short string sectors'' and the ``long string sectors'' as in AdS_3 string theory. The states of the latter propagate freely along the transverse plane of pp-wave background, but the states of the former do not. We compare the short string spectrum with the BPS and almost BPS states which have large R-charges in the symmetric orbifold conformal theory, which is known as the candidate of dual theory of superstrings on AdS_3 x S^3 x M^4. We show that every short string states can be embedded successfully in the single particle Hilbert space of symmetric orbifold conformal theory.

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