The Bubble of Nothing under T-duality

Abstract

The bubble of nothing is a solution to Einstein's equations where a circle shrinks and pinches off smoothly. As such, it is one of the simplest examples of a dynamical cobordism to nothing. We take a first step in studying how this solution transforms under T-duality in bosonic string theory. Applying Buscher's rules reveals that the dual solution features a singular, strongly coupled core, with a circle blowing-up rather than pinching off. This naive approach to T-duality solely accounts for the zero-modes of the fields after dimensional reduction on the circle. For this reason, we argue that this is not the full picture that the T-dual solution should depend non-trivially on the dual circle. We point out evidence to this effect both in the gravity description and on the worldsheet. A more complete description of the T-dual object would require a full-fledged sigma model for the bubble of nothing. Nevertheless, inspired by similar examples in the literature, we detail one possible scenario where the stringy bubble of nothing is mediated by closed string tachyon condensation and we discuss its T-duality.