A proposal for studying off-shell stability of vacuum geometries in string theory

TL;DR

This paper proposes studying the off-shell stability of string theory vacua through world-sheet sigma model RG flows, offering a new approach to predict their late-time behavior and stability endpoints.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for analyzing off-shell stability in string theory using RG flows, distinct from previous semiclassical gravity approaches.

Findings

RG flow stability analysis is mathematically well-posed.

Examples illustrate the approach's effectiveness.

Predictions about late-time behavior of vacua are possible.

Abstract

We briefly review studies of off-shell stability of vacuum geometries in semiclassical gravity. We propose a study of off-shell stability of vacua in string theory by a distinct, though somewhat related approach -- by studying their stability under suitable world-sheet sigma model renormalization group (RG) flows. Stability under RG flow is a mathematically well-posed and tractable problem in many cases, as we illustrate through examples. The advantage is that we can make definite predictions about late time behaviour and endpoints of off-shell processes in string theory. This is a contribution to the proceedings of Theory Canada 4, CRM Montreal.