Classical decay of a non-supersymmetric configuration of two D-branes

We have studied a problem of the tachyon mediated D-brane - D-brane annihilation from the point of view of the world-volume gauge field theory. Initial state was chosen in the form of two D-branes crossing at a non-zero angle, which is non-supersymmetric configuration generically. This state was not a groundstate of the theory and the problem at hand was a model, where we had rather precise control over the behavior of the theory considered. Some applications of this model to the D-brane physics and conclusions about stability of several configurations were made. By taking a T-dual picture of this process on a T-2 torus, we derived the known conclusion about the instability of a system consisting of D-0 and D-2 branes, and found its decay modes. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.