Noncommutative tachyons

Abstract

When unstable Dp-branes in type II string theory are placed in a B-field, the\nresulting tachyonic world-volume theory becomes noncommutative. We argue that\nfor large noncommutativity parameter, condensation of the tachyon as a\nnoncommutative soliton leads to new decay modes of the Dp-brane into\n(p-2)-brane configurations, which we interpret as suitably smeared BPS\nD(p-1)-branes. Some of these configurations are metastable. We discuss various\ngeneralizations of this decay process.\n