Tachyon condensation in noncommutative

We show that the decay of the D2-(D2) over bar system with large worldvolum e magnetic fields can be described in noncommutative gauge theory. Tachyon condensation in this system describes the annihilation of D2-(D2) over bar into D0 branes. From the (2 + 1)-dimensional point of view, this is the dec ay of a nonabelian magnetic flux into vortices. The semiclassical approxima tion is valid over a long period of the decay. Our analysis allows us to cl arify earlier results in the literature related to tachyon condensation and noncommutative gauge theory. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.