Abstract
We study the dynamics of parallel brane-brane and brane-antibrane scattering in string theory in flat spacetime, focusing on the pair production of open strings that stretch between the branes. We are particularly interested in the case of scattering at small impact parameter b <l(s), where there is a tachyon in the spectrum when a brane and an antibrane approach within a string length. Our conclusion is that despite the tachyon, branes and antibranes can pass through each other with only a very small probability of annihilating, so long as g(s) is small and the relative velocity v is neither too small nor too close to 1. Our analysis is relevant also to the case of charged open string production in world-volume electric fields, and we make use of this T-dual scenario in our analysis. We briefly discuss the application of our results to a stringy model of inflation involving moving branes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 050 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 12 Jan 2015 |
Funding
It is a pleasure to thank T. Bachlechner, S. Dubovsky, R. Flauger, B. Freivogel, V. Gorbenko, J. Maldacena, L. McAllister, M. Porrati, E. Silverstein, and G. Veneziano for discussions. The work of G. D'A. is supported by NASA through grant NNX10A171G and by NSF through AST-1109432. The work of MK, RG, and MS is supported in part by the NSF through grant PHY-1214302 and by the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.
Keywords
- Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM
- D-branes
- String Field Theory
- FIELD