Related papers: Renormalization in large-$N$ QCD is incompatible w…
Making use of the duality transformation, we derive in the Londons' limit of the Abelian Higgs Model string representation for the 't Hooft loop average defined on the string world-sheet, which yields the values of two coefficient functions…
We show that tree level superstring theories on certain supersymmetric backgrounds admit a symmetry which we call ``fermionic T-duality''. This is a non-local redefinition of the fermionic worldsheet fields similar to the redefinition we…
We review categorical aspects of 't Hooft's large $N$ expansion, which is expected to map any Quantum Field Theory of large matrices to a string theory. Our goal is to describe a general strategy to derive the string theory dual to given…
We consider N=1 supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics (SQCD) with the gauge group U(N_c) and N_c+N quark flavors. N_c flavors are massless; the corresponding squark fields develop (small) vacuum expectation values (VEVs) on the Higgs…
We study a class of four-dimensional N=1 heterotic string theories which have nontrivial quantum dynamics arising from asymptotically free gauge groups. These models are obtained by orbifolding 4d N=2 heterotic/type II dual pairs by…
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,…
We study the problem of a quantized elastic string in the presence of an impenetrable wall. This is a two-dimensional field theory of an N-component real scalar field $\phi$ which becomes interacting through the restriction that the…
We discuss in detail the $1+1$-dimensional superconformal field theory dual to type II string theory on $AdS_3\times S^3\times T^4$, emphasizing the string theoretic aspects of this duality. For one unit of NS-NS 5-brane flux ($Q_5=1$),…
In an attempt to establish a link between different quantization methods, I examine the massless 't Hooft equation, which governs meson bound state wavefunctions in 2d SU(N) gauge theory in the large-N limit. The integral equation can also…
We review recent developments in our understanding of the dynamics of strongly-coupled chiral $SU(N)$ gauge theories in four dimensions, problems which are potentially important in our quest to go beyond the standard $SU(3)_{QCD} \times…
The talk is about the power corrections in QCD. Renormalons, both infrared and ultraviolet, provide with a kind of a kinematical framework to fix exponents of the leading power corrections to various observables. Any viable dynamical…
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…
We show the existence of a global anomaly in the one-loop graphs of N=2 string theory, defined by sewing tree amplitudes, unless spacetime supersymmetry is imposed. The anomaly is responsible for the non-vanishing maximally helicity…
Recently Polchinski and Strassler reproduced the high energy QCD scaling at fixed angles from a gauge string duality inspired in AdS/CFT correspondence. In their approach a confining gauge theory is taken as approximately dual to an AdS…
We study Little String Theories (LST) with ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ supersymmetry arising, in a suitable double scaling limit, from 5-branes in heterotic string theory or in the heterotic-like type II/$(-)^{F_L}\times {\rm shift}$. The limit in…
We find aspects of electrically confining large $N$ Yang-Mills theories on $T^2 \times R^{d-2}$ which are consistent with a $GL(2,Z)$ duality. The modular parameter associated with this $GL(2,Z)$ is given by ${m\over N} + i\Lambda^2 A$,…
Electromagnetic plane waves provide examples of time-dependent open string backgrounds free of $\alpha'$ corrections. The solvable case of open strings in a quadrupolar wave front, analogous to pp-waves for closed strings, is discussed. In…
We discuss duality in $N=1$ SUSY gauge theories in Seiberg's conformal window, $(3N_c/2)<N_f<3N_c$. The 't Hooft consistency conditions -- the basic tool for establishing the infrared duality -- are considered taking into account higher…
In the standard model, stabilization of a classically unstable cosmic string may occur through the quantum fluctuations of a heavy fermion doublet. We review numerical results from a semiclassical expansion in a reduced version of the…
We extend the pp-wave correspondence to a non supersymmetric example. The model is the type 0B string theory on the pp-wave R-R background. We explicitly solve the model and give the spectrum of physical states. The field theory counterpart…