Non trivial string backgrounds: Tachyons in String Field Theory and Plane-waves in DLCQ Strings

One of the most interesting problems in string theory is to understand how the background space-time on which the string propagates arises in a self-consistent way. For open strings, there are two main approaches to this problem, boundary string field theory (BSFT) and cubic string field theory (CSFT). In the first part of this Thesis we deal with the construction of the spacetime tachyon effective action in BSFT. Renormalization fixed points are solutions of classical equations of motion and should be viewed as solutions of classical string field theory. We have constructed the Witten-Shatashvili (WS) space-time action S and shown that some solitonic solutions are lower dimensional D-branes for which the finite value of S provides a quite accurate prediction of the D-brane tension. We have derived the explicit relation between the CSFT and WS action as a field redefinition which is nonsingular on-shell only when the normalization factor in the WS action coincides with the tension of the D25-brane, in agreement with the conjectures involving tachyon condensation. We have also found a time-dependent solution of CSFT whose evolution is driven by a diffusion equation that makes the equations of motion local with respect to the time variable. The analysis here proposed has attracted a good deal of attention for its potential cosmological applications. The profile can be expressed in terms of a series in powers of exponentials of the time coordinate, and gives evidence of a well-defined but wildly oscillatory behavior. The tachyon rolls well past the minimum of the potential, then turns around and begins to oscillate with ever increasing amplitude. Furthermore, we have derived an analytic series solution of the elliptic equations providing the 4-tachyon off-shell amplitude. From such a solution we computed the exact coefficient of the quartic effective action relevant for time-dependent solutions and we derived the exact coefficient of the quartic tachyon coupling. We studied the rolling tachyon solution expressed as a series of exponentials of the time coordinate both using level-truncation computations and the exact 4-tachyon amplitude. The results for the level-truncated coefficients converge to those derived using the exact string amplitude and confirm the wild oscillatory behavior. In the second part of the Thesis we consider the extension of the gauge/gravity correspondence to systems with reduced and hence more realistic supersymmetry, which is one of the main steps towards a non-perturbative description of confining, QCD-like, gauge theories in terms of gravitational backgrounds. If string theory on AdS5xS5 is integrable, the theory on simple orbifolds of that space would also be expected to be integrable. We have computed the planar finite size corrections to the spectrum of the dilatation operator acting on states of a certain limit of conformal N = 2 quiver gauge field theory which is a ZM-orbifold of N = 4 SYM theory. We matched the result to the string dual, IIB superstrings on a pp-wave background with a periodically identified null coordinate. Up to two loops, we have shown that the computations done by using an effective Hamiltonian technique and a twisted Bethe Ansatz agree with each other and also agree with a computation of the analogous quantity in string theory. Our results are consistent with integrability of the N = 2 theory.