Shape of gauge field tadpoles in string theory

Abstract

Orbifolds in field theory are potentially singular objects for at their fixed points the curvature becomes infinite, therefore one may wonder whether field theory calculations near orbifold singularities can be trusted. String theory is perfectly well defined on orbifolds and can therefore be taken as a UV completion of field theory on orbifolds. We investigate the properties of field and string theory near orbifold singularities by reviewing the computation of a one loop gauge field tadpole. We find that in string theory the twisted states give contributions that have a spread of a couple of string lengths around the singularity, but otherwise the field theory picture is confirmed. One additional surprise is that in some orbifold models one can identify local tachyons that give contributions near the orbifold fixed point.