PP wave big bangs: matrix strings and shrinking fuzzy spheres

Abstract

We find pp wave solutions in string theory with null-like linear dilatons. These provide toy models of big bang cosmologies. We formulate matrix string theory in these backgrounds. Near the big bang "singularity," the string theory becomes strongly coupled but the Yang-Mills description of the matrix string is weakly coupled. The presence of a second length scale allows us to focus on a specific class of non-Abelian configurations, viz. fuzzy cylinders, for a suitable regime of parameters. We show that, for a class of pp waves, fuzzy cylinders which start out big at early times dynamically shrink into usual strings at sufficiently late times.