Orientifolds, RG Flows, and Closed String Tachyons

TL;DR

This paper explores the end states of tachyonic closed string theories by analyzing configurations with negative cosmological constants, proposing that certain orientifold-like objects and subcritical spaces represent stable minima or result from tachyon condensation.

Contribution

It introduces a unified perspective on tachyon condensation in closed string theories, connecting orientifold analogues and subcritical dimensions, and discusses potential dualities between these approaches.

Findings

Orientifold analogues can be stable minima of tachyon potential.

Subcritical dimension theories emerge from tachyon condensation.

Dualities relate different descriptions of tachyon dynamics.

Abstract

We discuss the fate of certain tachyonic closed string theories from two perspectives. In both cases our approach involves studying directly configurations with finite negative tree-level cosmological constant. Closed string analogues of orientifolds, which carry negative tension, are argued to represent the minima of the tachyon potential in some cases. In other cases, we make use of the fact, noted in the early string theory literature, that strings can propagate on spaces of subcritical dimension at the expense of introducing a tree-level cosmological constant. The form of the tachyon vertex operator in these cases makes it clear that a subcritical-dimension theory results from tachyon condensation. Using results of Kutasov, we argue that in some Scherk-Schwarz models, for finely-tuned tachyon condensates, a minimal model CFT times a subcritical dimension theory results. In some instances, these two sets of ideas may be related by duality.