Tachyon condensation in open-closed p-adic string theory

Abstract

We study a simple model of p-adic closed and open strings. It sheds some light on the dynamics of tachyon condensation for both types of strings. We calculate the effect of static and decaying D-brane configurations on the closed string background. For closed string tachyons we find lumps analogous to D-branes. By studying their fluctuation spectrum and the D-branes they admit, we argue that closed string lumps should be interpreted as spacetimes of lower dimensionality described by some noncritical p-adic string theory.