Some Properties of Type I' String Theory

This is a series of remedial lectures on open and unoriented strings for the heterotic string generation. The particular focus is on the interesting features that arise under T-duality---D-branes and orientifolds. The final lecture discusses the application to string duality. There will be no puns. Lectures presented by J. P. at the ITP from Nov. 16 to Dec. 5, 1995. References updated through Jan. 25, 1996.

It is conjectured that the two closed bosonic string theories, Type 0A and Type 0B, correspond to certain supersymmetry breaking orbifold compactifications of M-theory. Various implications of this conjecture are discussed, in particular the behaviour of the tachyon at strong coupling and the existence of non-perturbative fermionic states in Type 0A. The latter are shown to correspond to bound states of Type 0A D-particles, thus providing further evidence for the conjecture. ...

D-particle quantum mechanics in a type I' background is reviewed. It is also discussed how a string is created when a D-particle is taken through a D8-brane. The process is found to be dual to the creation of a D3-brane when a NS5 and D5 brane are passed through each other.

We calculate the R-R zero-norm states of type II string spectrum. To fit these states into the right symmetry charge parameters of the gauge transformations of the R-R tensor forms, one is forced to T-dualize some type I open string space-time coordinates and thus to introduce D-branes into the theory. We also demonstrate that the constant T-dual R-R 0-form zero-norm state, together with the NS-NS singlet zero-norm state are responsible for the SL(2,Z) S-duality symmetry of t...

In this note a simple calculation of one loop threshold corrections for the SO(32) heterotic string is performed. In particular the compactification on T^2 with a Wilson line breaking the gauge group to SO(16) x SO(16) is considered. Using heterotic type I duality, these corrections can be related to quantities appearing in the quantum mechanics of type I' D0 particles.

We consider non-BPS D8 (and D7) branes in type 0 open string theory and describe under which circumstances these branes are stable. We find stable non-BPS D7 and D8 in type 0 with and without D9-branes in the background. By extending the descent relations between D-branes to type 0 theories, the non-BPS D8-brane is considered as the result of a tachyon condensation of a D9 anti-D9 pair in type 0. We study the condensation of the open string tachyons in type 0 with generic gau...

A construction of compact tachyon-free orientifolds of the non-supersymmetric Type 0B string theory is presented. Moreover, we study effective non-supersymmetric gauge theories arising on self-dual D3-branes in Type 0B orbifolds and orientifolds.

In this paper we would like to discuss the emergence of D-branes from infinite many D-instantons in bosonic and type IIA string theory in the framework of boundary string field theory.

This is a short arrangement of notes on D-branes, offered as an embellishment of five lectures which were presented at the 1998 Trieste Spring School entitled ``Non-Perturbative Aspects of String Theory and Supersymmetric Gauge Theory''. There is a good number of collections of pedagogical notes on D-branes in the literature, and since space here is limited, no attempt will be made to cover all of the introductory material again. Instead, the notes cover selected topics and t...

We propose a construction of dual pairs in four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory using branes in type IIA string theory.