Sample interview questions: How do you approach the problem of tachyons in string theory?
Sample answer:
Approaching the Problem of Tachyons in String Theory
Tachyons, particles that travel faster than the speed of light, pose a fundamental challenge in string theory. However, several approaches have been proposed to address this problem:
1. Rolling Tachyons and Anti-branes:
- Rolling tachyons can condense and create anti-branes, which act as sources of negative tension.
- This negative tension balances the positive tension of branes, resulting in a stable vacuum without tachyons.
2. Non-BPS Branes:
- Branes that do not preserve supersymmetry (non-BPS) can have tachyons in their spectra.
- However, these tachyons can be stabilized by adding fluxes or extra dimensions to the theory.
3. Warped Compactifications:
- Warping the extra dimensions of string theory can alter the spectrum of particles.
- Warping space in a specific way can lift the tachyon instability and stabilize the theory.
4. Large-N Limit:
- In string theory, many physical quantities scale with the number of spacetime dimensions, N.
- The tachyon instability becomes less severe in the large-N limit, where the theory approaches a conformal field theory.
5. Open String Modes:
- Tachyon instability can arise from open string modes that connect different … Read full answer