Perturbative gauge theory and closed string tachyons

Anatoly Dymarsky, Igor R. Klebanov, Radu Roiban

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

56 Scopus citations

Abstract

We find an interesting connection between perturbative large N gauge theory and closed superstrings. The gauge theory in question is found on N D3-branes placed at the tip of the cone ℝ6/Γ. In our previous work we showed that, when the orbifold group Γ breaks all supersymmetry, then typically the gauge theory is not conformal because of double-trace couplings whose one-loop beta functions do not possess real zeros. In this paper we observe a precise correspondence between the instabilities caused by the flow of these double-trace couplings and the presence of tachyons in the twisted sectors of type IIB theory on orbifolds ℝ3,1 × ℝ6/Γ. For each twisted sectors that does not contain tachyons, we show that the corresponding double-trace coupling flows to a fixed point and does not cause an instability. However, whenever a twisted sector is tachyonic, we find that the corresponding one-loop beta function does not have a real zero, hence an instability is likely to exist in the gauge theory. We demonstrate explicitly the one-to-one correspondence between the regions of stability/instability in the space of charges under Γ that arise in the perturbative gauge theory and in the free string theory. Possible implications of this remarkably simple gauge/string correspondence are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)937-958
Number of pages22
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 2005

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Keywords

  • 1/N Expansion
  • AdS-CFT and dS-CFT Correspondence
  • Tachyon Condensation

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