The Rolling Tachyon as a Matrix Model

TL;DR

This paper develops matrix integral techniques to compute correlation functions in timelike boundary Liouville theory, revealing a potential equivalence between the rolling tachyon and two-dimensional QCD.

Contribution

It expresses correlation functions as matrix integrals and explicitly computes many, including the boundary state of the rolling tachyon, suggesting a link to 2D Yang-Mills theory.

Findings

Correlation functions expressed as matrix integrals.

Explicit computation of boundary state terms.

Indication of equivalence between rolling tachyon and QCD_2.

Abstract

We express all correlation functions in timelike boundary Liouville theory as unitary matrix integrals and develop efficient techniques to evaluate these integrals. We compute large classes of correlation functions explicitly, including an infinite number of terms in the boundary state of the rolling tachyon. The matrix integrals arising here also determine the correlation functions of gauge invariant operators in two dimensional Yang-Mills theory, suggesting an equivalence between the rolling tachyon and QCD_2.