Abstract
Closed string models have recently been constructed in lower than their critical spacetime dimensionsD≤D cr. An ideal gas of closed strings withD≥4 undergoes a phase transition at a universal point (Hagedorn temperature). We argue that solitonic configurations on the string world-sheet (vortices) drive the system into a high-temperature phase where the vacuum is dominated by vortex condensates. Flat spacetime is identified with the dipole low-temperature phase of vortex antivortex pairs. This is a “Kosterlitz-Thouless” transition on the string world-sheet. It is suggestive of a “stringy” realization of the inflationary universe paradigm.
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This essay received the third award from the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 1988.—Ed.
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Axenides, M. On the phase transition to spacetime in string cosmology. Gen Relat Gravit 21, 659–664 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00759075
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00759075