Tachyon Tunnelling in D-brane-anti-D-brane

TL;DR

This paper investigates the decay process of a D-brane-anti-D-brane system via tachyon tunneling, revealing that the decay rate is surprisingly independent of brane separation due to the non-standard kinetic term.

Contribution

It introduces a new analysis of tachyon tunneling decay in D-brane systems using the tachyon DBI action, highlighting an unusual independence from brane separation.

Findings

Decay rate independent of brane separation in thin wall approximation

Non-standard kinetic term affects tunneling dynamics

Potential need for throat formation solutions in decay process

Abstract

Using the tachyon DBI action proposal for the effective theory of non-coincident D$_p$-brane-anti-D$_p$-brane system, we study the decay of this system in the tachyon channel. We assume that the branes separation is held fixed, i.e. no throat formation, and then find the bounce solution which describe the decay of the system from false to the true vacuum of the tachyon potential. We shall show that due to the non-standard form of the kinetic term in the effective action, the thin wall approximation for calculating the bubble nucleation rate gives a result which is independent of the branes separation. This unusual result might indicate that the true decay of this metastable system should be via a solution that represents a throat formation as well as the tachyon tunneling.