Origin of the geometric tachyon
  The motion of a Dp-brane in the background of a stack of coincident NS5-branes is analysed as the motion of a relativistic point particle in the transverse space of the five-branes. In this system, the particle experiences a proper acceleration orthogonal to its proper velocity due to the background dilaton field which changes the dynamics from that of a simple geodesic motion. In particular, we show that in the vicinity of the five-branes, it is this acceleration which is responsible for modifying the motion of the radial mode to that of an inverted simple harmonic oscillator leading to the tachyonic instability. 
Ashok Das, Sudhakar Panda and Shibaji Roy