Open String Gravity?

TL;DR

This paper derives the induced gravity action on a D-brane using Boundary String Field Theory, revealing Einstein-Hilbert and Born-Infeld structures and suggesting a pattern in higher-order curvature terms.

Contribution

It provides a novel calculation of the effective brane action, including the Einstein-Hilbert term, from boundary string field theory, supporting brane-world gravity models.

Findings

Identification of Einstein-Hilbert term at order alpha'

Derivation of effective action with extrinsic curvature

Pattern in higher-order curvature terms

Abstract

We present a new application of Boundary String Field Theory: calculating the induced-gravity action on a D-brane. Using a simple quadratic tachyon potential to model a D-brane fluctuating in the flat target space we derive the effective action in terms of the extrinsic curvature to all orders in alpha'. We identify both the Born-Infeld structure as well as the Einstein-Hilbert term at order alpha'. This corroborates the conjectured existence of the latter term in the brane-world scenarios. The higher order terms in Ricci scalar and extrinsic curvature suggest a pattern which calls for an explanation.