Tunnelling Effects in a Brane System and Quantum Hall Physics

TL;DR

This paper models a system of interacting D-branes as a Quantum Hall fluid, demonstrating that tachyon condensation corresponds to particle tunnelling and induces a conformal field theory transition with symmetry enhancement.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model linking D-brane interactions to Quantum Hall physics and describes a conformal field theory transition caused by tachyon condensation.

Findings

Tachyon condensation is equivalent to particle tunnelling in the model.

The system transitions from a conformal field theory with c=2 to c=3/2.

Symmetry enhancement occurs during the phase transition.

Abstract

We argue that a system of interacting D-branes, generalizing a recent proposal, can be modelled as a Quantum Hall fluid. We show that tachyon condensation in such a system is equivalent to one particle tunnelling. In a conformal field theory effective description, that induces a transition from a theory with central charge c=2 to a theory with c=3/2, with a corresponding symmetry enhancement.