Domain wall (string theory)

String theory

Fundamental objects
String Brane D-brane
Perturbative theory
Bosonic Superstring Type I Type II (IIA / IIB) Heterotic (SO(32) · E₈×E₈)
Non-perturbative results
S-duality T-duality M-theory AdS/CFT correspondence
Phenomenology
Phenomenology Cosmology Landscape
Mathematics
Mirror symmetry Monstrous moonshine
Related concepts Conformal field theory Holographic principle Kaluza–Klein theory Quantum gravity Supergravity Supersymmetry Theory of everything Twistor string theory
Theorists Arkani-Hamed Banks Dijkgraaf Duff Fischler Gates Gliozzi Green Greene Gross Gubser Harvey Hořava Kaku Klebanov Kontsevich Maldacena Mandelstam Martinec Minwalla Moore Motl Nekrasov Neveu Olive Polchinski Polyakov Randall Ramond Rohm Scherk Schwarz Seiberg Sen Shenker Sơn Strominger Sundrum Susskind 't Hooft Townsend Vafa Veneziano E. Verlinde H. Verlinde Witten Yau Zaslow
History Glossary

For other uses, see Domain wall.

In physics, a domain wall is any of several similar things in string theory, magnetism, or optics. These phenomena can all be generically described as topological solitons that occur whenever a discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken.^[1]

String theory

In string theory, a domain wall is a theoretical 2-dimensional singularity. A domain wall is meant to represent an object of codimension one embedded into space (a defect in space localized in one spatial dimension). For example, D8-branes are domain walls in type II string theory. In M-theory, the existence of Horava–Witten domain walls, "ends of the world" that carry an E8 gauge theory, is important for various relations between superstring theory and M-theory.

If domain walls exist, it seems plausible that gravitational waves would be violently emitted if two such walls collided. As gravitational waves have been discovered by LIGO, it means that fundamentally, singularities plausibly exist, what type of singularities will depend on the math and observations involved.

References

↑ S. Weinberg, The Quantum Theory of Fields, Vol. 2. Chap 23, Cambridge University Press (1995).

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