Closed String Tachyons and RG flows

Abstract

We consider bulk tachyon condensations in a non-linear sigma model whose low energy effective theory contains a nontrivial scalar potential. We argue that one would typically encounter a strong coupling background along a RG flow corresponding to a bulk tachyon condensation, beyond which the RG analysis would not be reliable. In a range of the flow in which the string coupling constant is small, we can show that the tachyon condensation actually decreases the central charge of the sigma model.