Related papers: Large N and confining flux tubes as strings - a vi…
I summarise what recent lattice calculations tell us about the large-N limit of SU(N) gauge theories in 3+1 dimensions. The focus is on confinement, how close SU(oo) is to SU(3), new stable strings at larger N, deconfinement, topology and…
In U(1) lattice gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions, the problem of confinement can be studied analytically in a semi-classical approach, in terms of a gas of monopoles with Coulomb-like interactions. In addition, this theory can be…
We calculate in the SU(6) gauge theory the mass of the lightest flux loop that winds around a spatial torus, as a function of the torus size, taking care to achieve control of the main systematic errors. For comparison we perform a similar…
In $\mathrm{U(1)}$ lattice gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions, confinement can be analytically shown to persist at all values of the coupling. Furthermore, the explicit predictions for the dependence of string tension $\sigma$ and…
Some mysterious features of the strong interactions become easily understood if our usual QCD with N=3 is `close to' SU(oo) and if the latter theory is confining. N=oo theories are theoretically simpler; in particular there has been much…
I summarise what lattice methods can contribute to our understanding of the phenomenology of QCD at large Nc and describe some recent work on the physics of SU(Nc) gauge theories. These non-perturbative calculations show that there is…
We carry out lattice calculations of the spectrum of confining flux tubes that wind around a spatial torus of variable length l, in 2+1 dimensions. We compare the energies of the lowest c.30 states to the free string Nambu-Goto model and to…
Effective string theory has shown its universal power in the prediction of the spectrum of low-lying excited states of confining strings. Here we study confining flux tubes in $\mathbb{Z}_N$ gauge theories. For the $N=2$ theory, which…
We calculate, numerically, the low-lying spectrum of closed confining flux tubes that carry flux in different representations of SU(N). We do so for SU(6) at beta=171, where the calculated low-energy physics is very close to the continuum…
We calculate the string tension and part of the mass spectrum of SU(4) and SU(6) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions using lattice techniques. We combine these new results with older results for N=2,...,5 so as to obtain more accurate…
We study the effective bosonic string that describes confining flux tubes in three-dimensional SU(N) Yang--Mills theories. Although the low-energy properties are universal and well described by the Nambu--Got\=o action, the subtle…
I show how one can use lattice methods to calculate various continuum properties of SU(N) gauge theories; in part to explore old ideas that N=3 might be close to N=infinity. I describe calculations of the low-lying `glueball' mass spectrum,…
Simulations in lattice gauge theory suggest that the formation of a flux tube between quark and antiquark leads to quark confinement. It is conjectured that the infrared behaviour of the flux tube is governed by an effective string theory…
We extend our earlier calculations of the spectrum of closed flux tubes in SU(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions, with a focus on questions raised by recent theoretical progress on the effective string action of long flux tubes and the…
We calculate the energy spectrum of a confining flux tube that is closed around a spatial torus, as a function of its length l. We do so for various SU(N) gauge theories in 3+1 dimensions, and for various values of spin, parity and…
We carry out a systematic study of the effective bosonic string describing confining flux tubes in $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ Yang--Mills theories in three spacetime dimensions. While their low-energy properties are known to be universal and are…
We study the spectrum of closed flux tubes in four dimensional SU(N) gauge theories. We do so by calculating the energies of the low lying states with the variational technique (whose basis consists of about ~700 operators). We study states…
We present recent results on the spectrum of a confining flux tube that is closed around a spatial torus as a function of its length as well as the spectrum of glueballs. The extraction of the spectra has been realized by simulating four…
We review the current knowledge about the theoretical foundations of the effective string theory for confining flux tubes and the comparison of the predictions to pure gauge lattice data. A concise presentation of the effective string…
We review recent lattice results for the large $N$ limit of SU(N) gauge theories. In particular, we focus on glueball masses, topology and its relation to chiral symmetry breaking (relevant for phenomenology), on the tension of strings…