|
Informal Pizza SeminarBrane Inflation with Plenty of DefectsHorace StoicaMcGillIn the brane inflationary scenario, the interaction between branes and antibranes, or between branes oriented at angles, provides the potential for the inflaton. Inflation ends when the branes and antibranes annihilate, or the branes at angles rearrange to a lower energy configuration. When the separation between the branes decreases below a critical value, an open string mode becomes tachyonic. The annihilation or rearrangement process can be interpreted in the low-energy effective theory as the rolling of the tachyon field to its minimum, and since the vacuum manifold of the tachyon field is non-trivial, topological defects are expected to form.
Tuesday, November 4th 2003, 13:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, room 326 |