1999/12/24 by Ashoke Sen, Barton Zwiebach
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2000/03/002
published as JHEP 0003:002,2000 · 13 pages, LaTex
arxiv created 1999/12/24 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
It has been conjectured that at a stationary point of the tachyon potential for the D-brane of bosonic string theory, the negative energy density exactly cancels the D-brane tension. We evaluate this tachyon potential by off-shell calculations in open string field theory. Surprisingly, the condensation of the tachyon mode alone into the stationary point of its cubic potential is found to cancel about 70% of the D-brane tension. Keeping relevant scalars up to four mass levels above the tachyon, the energy density at the shifted stationary point cancels 99% of the D-brane tension.