Open string

In music, an open string is a string of a string instrument that is played without stopping on the fingerboard. This table lists open strings on some common string instruments:

Related Topics:
Music - String instrument

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In physics, an open string is a one-dimensional fundamental object in string theory that has two end-points, and therefore is topologically equivalent to a line interval. Such an open string can execute one of infinitely many vibrational patterns. In some cases, the lowest-energy vibration is identified as a tachyon, and it can undergo tachyon condensation. One of the other vibrational patterns may identify the open string with the photon and so on.

Related Topics:
Physics - String theory - Tachyon - Tachyon condensation - Photon

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The oldest superstring theory containing open strings was type I string theory. However, the developments in string theory in the 1990s have shown that the open strings should always be thought of as ending on a new type of objects called the D-branes, and the spectrum of possibilities for open strings has increased a lot.

Related Topics:
Superstring theory - Type I string theory - D-branes

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