Disk Partition Function and Oscillatory Rolling Tachyons

TL;DR

This paper investigates the disk partition function for oscillatory rolling tachyon solutions in open string field theory, revealing that it closely resembles the simpler exponential case despite the oscillatory nature.

Contribution

It provides an explicit calculation of the disk partition function for oscillatory tachyon profiles, showing their similarity to exponential profiles in boundary conformal theory.

Findings

Disk partition function for oscillatory tachyons is nearly identical to exponential case.

Oscillatory solutions are related to simpler deformations via field redefinition.

Results suggest robustness of the partition function under different tachyon profiles.

Abstract

An exact cubic open string field theory rolling tachyon solution was recently found by Kiermaier et. al. and Schnabl. This oscillatory solution has been argued to be related by a field redefinition to the simple exponential rolling tachyon deformation of boundary conformal theory. In the latter approach, the disk partition function takes a simple form. Out of curiosity, we compute the disk partition function for an oscillatory tachyon profile, and find that the result is nevertheless almost the same.