Self-avoiding effective strings in lattice gauge theories

It is shown that the effective string recently introduced to describe the long distance dynamics of 3D gauge systems in the confining phase has an intriguing description in terms of models of 2D self-avoiding walks in the dense phase. The deconfinement point, where the effective string becomes N=2 supersymmetric, may then be interpreted as the tricritical Theta point where the polymer chain undergoes a collapse transition. As a consequence, a universal value of the deconfinement temperature is predicted.