Unitarity and singular backgrounds

Abstract

We compute the graviton Kaluza-Klein spectrum on a gravity-dilaton background with a naked singularity for all possible boundary conditions at the singularity which are consistent with unitary evolution. We apply methods from non-relativistic quantum mechanics with singular Schrödinger potentials. In general the spectrum contains a tachyon, a sign of instability. Only for a particular boundary condition at the singularity is the spectrum free of tachyons. In this case the lowest-lying graviton mode is massless. We argue that this result will also hold for other backgrounds with similar geometry near the curvature singularity. We complete our study with a brief discussion on radion perturbations and the Higgs mechanism on this singular background.

Comments: 23 pages, 10 figures. Presentation improved. Unchanged in substance. To appear in Phys Rev D