Open string states and D-brane tension from vacuum string field theory

TL;DR

This paper presents a new approach to describing open string fields on a D25-brane within vacuum string field theory, accurately reproducing the tachyon mass, the spectrum of open string states, and the D-brane tension, resolving previous controversies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel description of open string fields that correctly reproduces key physical quantities and clarifies the relation between string coupling and D-brane tension.

Findings

Correctly reproduces tachyon mass

Accurately obtains open string spectrum

Expresses D-brane tension in terms of coupling constant

Abstract

We propose a description of open string fields on a D25-brane in vacuum string field theory. We show that the tachyon mass is correctly reproduced from our proposal and further argue that the mass spectrum of all other open string states is correctly obtained as well. We identify the string coupling constant from the three-tachyon coupling and show that the tension of a D25-brane is correctly expressed in terms of the coupling constant, which resolves the controversy in the literature. We also discuss a reformulation of our description which is rather similar to boundary string field theory.