The Tachyon at the End of the Universe

Details The Tachyon at the End of the Universe The Tachyon at the End of the Universe

2005-06-16

arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0506130v2

JHEP 0508 (2005) 090

Physics

High Energy Physics

High Energy Physics - Theory

33 pages, 1 eps figure; v2: clarifications, added refs

Scientific paper

10.1088/1126-6708/2005/08/090

We show that a tachyon condensate phase replaces the spacelike singularity in certain cosmological and black hole spacetimes in string theory. We analyze explicitly a set of examples with flat spatial slices in various dimensions which have a winding tachyon condensate, using worldsheet path integral methods from Liouville theory. In a vacuum with no excitations above the tachyon background in the would-be singular region, we analyze the production of closed strings in the resulting state in the bulk of spacetime. We find a thermal result reminiscent of the Hartle-Hawking state, with tunably small energy density. The amplitudes exhibit a self-consistent truncation of support to the weakly-coupled small-tachyon region of spacetime. We argue that the background is accordingly robust against back reaction, and that the resulting string theory amplitudes are perturbatively finite, indicating a resolution of the singularity and a mechanism to start or end time in string theory. Finally, we discuss the generalization of these methods to examples with positively curved spatial slices.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Tachyon at the End of the Universe does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Tachyon at the End of the Universe, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Tachyon at the End of the Universe will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-5104