Tachyon condensation in string field theory

Abstract

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.