We compare the predictions of the effective string description of confinement in finite temperature gauge theories to high precision Monte Carlo data for the three-dimensional Z(2) gauge theory. We show that string interaction effects become more relevant as the temperature is increased towards the deconfinement one, and are well modeled by a Nambu-Goto string action.
@article{arxiv.hep-lat/0210023,
title = {String effects in Polyakov loop correlators},
author = {M. Caselle and M. Hasenbusch and M. Panero and P. Provero},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-lat/0210023},
year = {2009}
}