Related papers: k-String tensions and the 1/N expansion
Pure Yang-Mills theory in 2 spacetime dimensions shows exact Casimir scaling. Thus there are infinitely many string tensions, and this has been understood as a result of non-propagating gluons in 2 dimensions. From ordinary symmetry…
The general features of the 1/N expansion in statistical mechanics and quantum field theory are briefly reviewed both from the theoretical and from the phenomenological point of view as an introduction to a more detailed analysis of the…
We calculate the low-lying glueball spectrum, some string tensions and some properties of topology and the running coupling for SU(N) lattice gauge theories in 3+1 dimensions. We do so for N = 2,3,...12, using lattice simulations with the…
Cosmic (super)strings offer promising ways to test ideas about the early universe and physics at high energies. While in field theory constructions their tension is usually assumed to be constant (or at most slowly-varying), this is often…
The eigenvalues of Wilson loop matrices in SU(N) gauge theories in dimensions 2,3,4 at infinite N are supported on a small arc on the unit circle centered at $z=1$ for small loops, but expand to the entire unit circle for large loops. These…
We study the behavior of matrix string theory in the strong coupling region, where it is expected to reduce to discrete light-cone type IIA superstring. In the large $N$ limit, the reduction corresponds to the double-dimensional reduction…
SU(N) gauge theories, extended with adjoint fermions having periodic boundary conditions, are confining at high temperature for sufficiently light fermion mass m. Lattice simulations indicate that this confining region is smoothly connected…
We derive the universal threshold corrections in heterotic string theory including a continuous Wilson line. Unification of gauge and gravitational couplings is shown to be possible even within perturbative string theory. The relative…
When the magnetic sector of hot QCD, 3D SU(N) Yang-Mills theory, is described as a dilute gas of non-Abelian monopoles in the adjoint representation of the magnetic group, Wilson loops of N-ality k are known to obey a periodic k(N-k) law.…
We present our preliminary results of SO(2N) gauge theories, approaching the large-N limit. SO(2N) theories may help us to understand QCD at finite chemical potential since there is an orbifold equivalence between SO(2N) and SU(N) gauge…
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…
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…
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…
Long strings emerge in many Quantum Field Theories, for example as vortices in Abelian Higgs theories, or flux tubes in Yang-Mills theories. The actions of such objects can be expanded in the number of derivatives, around a long straight…
String representations of the Wilson loop are constructed in the SU(N)-version of compact QED in three and four dimensions. This is done exactly in the case of the fundamental Wilson loop and in the large-N limit in the case of the adjoint…
We study magnetic flux tubes in the Higgs vacuum of the N=1^* mass deformation of SU(N_c), N=4 SYM and its large N_c string dual, the Polchinski-Strassler geometry. Choosing equal masses for the three adjoint chiral multiplets, for all N_c…
Linear confinement with Casimir scaling of the string tension in confining gauge theories is a consequence of a certain property of the Polyakov loop related to random matrices. This mechanism does not depend on the details of the theories…
We present the results of a high statistics analysis of smeared Wilson loops in 4 dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory for various values of N. The data is used to analyze the behaviour of smeared Creutz ratios, extracting from them the…
Localization approach to $\mathcal N=2$ superconformal $SU(N) \times SU(N)$ quiver theory leads to a non-Gaussian two-matrix model representation for the expectation value of BPS circular $SU(N)$ Wilson loop $\langle\mathcal W\rangle$. We…
A recently proposed connection between closed string field and an open Wilson line defined on an arbitrary contour is further explored here. We suggest that reparametrization invariance of a Wilson line is the principle which determines the…