ZZ Brane Decay in D Dimensions

Abstract

In this paper we consider the ZZ brane decay in a D-dimensional background with a linear dilaton and a Liouville potential switched on. We mainly calculate the closed string emission rate during the decay process. For the case of a spacelike dilaton we find a similar Hagedorn behavior, in the closed string UV region, with the brane decay in the usual 26d and 2d bosonic string theory. This means that all of the energy of the original brane converts into outgoing closed strings. In the IR region the result is finite. We also give some comments about the case that the dilaton is null.