Tachyon condensation in cubic superstring field theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates tachyon condensation in cubic superstring field theory, calculating the potential at different levels to test the conjecture that tachyon condensation cancels brane tension.

Contribution

It provides detailed computations of the tachyon potential at various levels within cubic superstring field theory, supporting the conjecture about brane tension cancellation.

Findings

At level (1/2,1), the potential minimum is 97.5% of the brane tension.

At level (2,6), the potential minimum is 105.8% of the brane tension.

Supports the conjecture that tachyon condensation cancels brane tension.

Abstract

It has been conjectured that at the stationary point of the tachyon potential for the non-BPS D-brane or brane-anti-D-brane pair, the negative energy density cancels the brane tension. We study this conjecture using a cubic superstring field theory with insertion of a double-step inverse picture changing operator. We compute the tachyon potential at levels (1/2,1) and (2,6). In the first case we obtain that the value of the potential at the minimum is 97.5% of the non BPS D-brane tension. Using a special gauge in the second case we get 105.8% of the tension.