Related papers: Towards a Theory of the QCD String

This is a set of lectures on the gauge/string duality and non-critical strings, with a particular emphasis on the discretized, or matrix model, approach. After a general discussion of various points of view, I describe the recent…

According to the Axionic String Anstaz (ASA) confining flux tubes in pure gluodynamics are in the same equivalence class as a new family of integrable non-critical strings, called axionic strings. In addition to translational modes, axionic…

In $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory without matter, there exist stable long electric fluxtube strings which carry a 1-form symmetry charge. Over the past decade or so, there has been increasing evidence from lattice calculations that the…

I present a new class of topological string theories, and discuss them in two dimensions as candidates for the string description of large-$N$ QCD. The starting point is a new class of topological sigma models, whose path integral is…

Superstring theories in the critical dimension D=10 are connected to one another by a well-explored web of dualities. In this paper we use closed-string tachyon condensation to connect the supersymmetric moduli space of the critical…

The quantum worldsheet dynamics of vortex strings contains information about the 4d non-Abelian gauge theory in which the string lives. Here I tell this story. The string worldsheet theory is typically some variant of the CP^{N-1}…

We present a string theory that reproduces the large-$N$ expansion of two dimensional Yang-Mills gauge theory on arbitrary surfaces. First, a new class of topological sigma models is introduced, with path integrals localized to the moduli…

The tensionless limit of classical string theory may be formulated as a topological theory on the world-sheet. A vector density carries geometrical information in place of an internal metric. It is found that path-integral quantization…

We study confining strings in massive adjoint two-dimensional chromodynamics. Off-shell, as a consequence of zigzag formation, the resulting worldsheet theory provides a non-trivial dynamical realization of infinite quon statistics. Taking…

The AdS/CFT correspondence of elementary string theory has been recently suggested as a ``microscopic'' approach to QCD string theory in various dimensions. We use the microscopic theory to show that the ultraviolet regime on the string…

It has been shown that non-Abelian solitonic vortex strings supported in four-dimensional (4D) ${\mathcal N}=2\;$ supersymmetric QCD (SQCD) with the U($N=2$) gauge group and $N_f=4$ quark flavors behave as critical superstrings. In addition…

I argue that the ten dimensional non--supersymmetric tachyonic superstrings may serve as good starting points for the construction of viable phenomenological vacua. Thus, enlarging the space of possible solutions that may address some of…

We present a major update on the spectrum of closed flux tubes in $D=3+1$ $SU(N)$ gauge theories. We measure the excitation spectrum of confining strings wound around a spatial dimension of a size $R$. We do so for the $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills…

We propose a new approach for the calculation of the spectrum of excitations of QCD flux tubes. It relies on the fact that the worldsheet theory is integrable at low energies. With this approach, energy levels can be calculated for much…

We introduce a new two-dimensional string theory defined by coupling two copies of Liouville CFT with complex central charge $c=13\pm i \lambda$ on the worldsheet. This string theory defines a novel, consistent and controllable model of…

String theory realisations of the QCD axion are often said to belong to the anthropic window where the decay constant is around the GUT scale and the initial misalignment angle has to be tuned close to zero. In this paper we revisit this…

We consider non-Abelian strings in N=2 supersymmetric QCD with the U$(N)$ gauge group and $N_f=N$ quark flavors deformed by a mass term for the adjoint matter. This deformation breaks N=2 supersymmetry down to N=1. Dynamics of orientational…

We explore nonrelativistic (NR) pulsating string configurations over torsion Newton-Cartan (TNC) geometry having topology $ R \times S^2 $ and check the corresponding analytic integrability criteria following Kovacic's algorithm. In the…

We consider the (2, 0) supersymmetric theory of tensor multiplets and self-dual strings in six space-time dimensions. Space-time diffeomorphisms that leave the string world-sheet invariant appear as gauge transformations on the normal…

We consider non-Abelian 1/2 BPS flux tubes (strings) in a deformed N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory, with mass terms mu_{1,2} of the adjoint fields breaking N=2 down to N=1. The main feature of the non-Abelian strings is the occurrence of…