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Article
Title	Orientifolds, Renormalization-group Flows And Closed String Tachyons
Author(s)	Kachru, S ; Kumar, J ; Silverstein, E
Publication	2000
In:	Class. Quantum Gravity
Subject category	Mathematical Physics and Mathematics
Abstract	Summary: We discuss the fate of certain tachyonic closed string theories from two perspectives. In both cases our approach involves directly studying configurations with a 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.

Corresponding record in: Zentralblatt MATH