Off-shell Crosscap State and Orientifold Planes with Background Dilatons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how background dilaton fields influence the properties of orientifold planes in string theory, introducing an off-shell crosscap state to better understand their modified tensions and dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces an off-shell crosscap state framework that captures dilaton effects on orientifold planes, extending the understanding of their tensions and dimensions.

Findings

Dilaton condensation alters orientifold plane dimensions.

Off-shell crosscap state interpolates between on-shell states and T-duals.

Reproduces correct descent relations among orientifold tensions.

Abstract

We show that a non-trivial dilaton condensation alters the dimensions of orientifold planes. An off-shell crosscap state which naturally interpolates between the usual on-shell crosscap states and their T-duals plays an important role in the analysis. We present an explicit representation of the off-shell crosscap state on an RP2 worldsheet in the gauge in which the worldsheet curvature in the bulk of the fundamental region of the RP2 vanishes. We show that the non-trivial dilaton condensation reproduces the correct descent relation among orientifold plane tensions.