Stringy Higgs Mechanism and the Fate of Open Strings

TL;DR

This paper refines the understanding of vacua in bosonic string theory, showing how open and closed string vacua are connected via a string field theory Higgs mechanism, emphasizing tachyon condensation.

Contribution

It introduces a string field theory Higgs mechanism connecting open and closed string vacua, extending the analogy with the Higgs mechanism in gauge theories.

Findings

Open and closed string vacua are connected by a Higgs-like mechanism.

Tachyon condensation plays a crucial role in the transition.

The approach is analyzed through world-sheet sigma-model and target-space perspectives.

Abstract

We propose a refinement of the physical picture describing different vacua in bosonic string theory. The vacua with closed strings and open strings are connected by the string field theory version of the Higgs mechanism, generalizing the Higgs mechanism of an abelian gauge field interacting with a complex scalar. In accordance with Sen's conjecture, the condensation of the tachyon is an essential part of the story. We consider this phenomenon from the point of view of both a world-sheet sigma-model and the target-space theory. In the Appendix the relevant remarks regarding the choice of the coordinates in the background independent open string field theory are given.