Supergravity approach to tachyon condensation on the brane-antibrane system

TL;DR

This paper uses supergravity solutions to model tachyon condensation on brane-antibrane systems, explicitly relating supergravity parameters to physical quantities like brane numbers and tachyon vev, confirming the process described by Sen.

Contribution

It provides the first explicit mapping between supergravity parameters and brane-antibrane system variables, capturing tachyon condensation dynamics.

Findings

Supergravity solutions encode tachyon condensation properties.

Explicit relations between supergravity parameters and brane numbers and tachyon vev.

The ADM mass reflects the tachyon condensation process.

Abstract

We study the tachyon condensation on the D-brane--antiD-brane system from the supergravity point of view. The non-supersymmetric supergravity solutions with symmetry ISO($p,1$) $\times$ SO($9-p$) are known to be characterized by three parameters. By interpreting this solution as coincident $N$ D$p$-branes and ${\bar N}$ ${\bar {\rm D}}p$-branes we give, for the first time, an explicit representation of the three parameters of supergravity solutions in terms of $N, \bar N$ and the tachyon vev. We demonstrate that the solution and the corresponding ADM mass capture all the required properties and give a correct description of the tachyon condensation advocated by Sen on the D-brane--antiD-brane system.