String Duals of Two-Dimensional Yang-Mills and Symmetric Product Orbifolds

We propose a bosonic string dual to large $N$ chiral Yang-Mills in two dimensions at finite 't Hooft coupling. The worldsheet theory is a $\beta$-$\gamma$ system deformed by a chiral Polchinski-Strominger term. We reproduce the partition function on a torus, cylinder three-point amplitudes, and the area law for Wilson loops. We also present candidate string duals to symmetric product orbifolds for general seed CFTs with $c<24$ and their $T\bar{T}$-, $J\bar{T}$-deformations. The results hint at interrelations among confining, nonrelativistic and matrix strings, and AdS$_3/$CFT$_2$.