COSMOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN A TYPE-0 STRING THEORY

Abstract

We study the cosmological evolution of a type-0 string theory by employing non-criticality, which may be induced by fluctuations of the D3 brane worlds. We check the consistency of the approach to [Formula: see text] in the corresponding σ-model. The ten-dimensional theory is reduced to an effective four-dimensional model, with only time dependent fields. We show that the four-dimensional universe has an inflationary phase and graceful exit from it, while the other extra dimensions are stabilized to a constant value, with the fifth dimension much larger than the others. We pay particular attention to demonstrating the role of tachyonic matter in inducing these features. The universe asymptotes, for large times, to a nonaccelerating linearly-expanding universe with a time-dependent dilaton and a relaxing to zero vacuum energy a lá quintessence. Our perturbative string solution appears to have initial singularities (Big Bang type), which however, we believe, may be lifted in a nonperturbative way, and they do not represent true singularities of the string theory.