Related papers: Confinement on $\mathbb{R}^3 \times \mathbb{S}^1$ …
We show how BPS states of supersymmetric SU(2) Yang-Mills with matter -both massless and massive- are described as self-dual strings on a Riemann surface. This connection enables us to prove the stability and the strong coupling behaviour…
We study the tensions of domain walls in the deconfined phase of N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills theory on R^3 x S^1, at weak and strong coupling. We calculate the k-wall tension at one-loop order and find that it is proportional to k(N-k) (Casimir…
The dual superconductivity is a promising mechanism for quark confinement. We have proposed the non-Abelian dual superconductivity picture for SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, and showed the restricted field dominance (called conventionally Abelian…
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…
It is conjectured that strongly coupled, spatially noncommutative $\mathcal{N}=4$ Yang-Mills theory has a dual description as a weakly coupled open string theory in a near critical electric field, and that this dual theory is fully…
We study finite-temperature N=1 SU(2) super Yang-Mills theory, compactified on a spatial circle of size L with supersymmetric boundary conditions. In the semiclassical small-L regime, a deconfinement transition occurs at T_c <<1/L. The…
We give a theoretical framework for defining and extracting non-Abelian magnetic monopoles in a gauge-invariant way in SU(N) Yang-Mills theory to study quark confinement. Then we give numerical evidences that the non-Abelian magnetic…
Domain-wall solutions in four-dimensional supersymmetric field theories with distinct discrete vacuum states lead to the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry, either completely or partially. We consider in detail the case when the domain…
We study the behaviour of \SU{2} Yang-Mills fields on a $T_2\times R^2$ geometry where the two-torus is equipped with twisted boundary conditions. We monitor the evolution of the dynamics of the system as a function of the torus size $l_s$.…
We study a recently discovered family of 1/8-BPS supersymmetric Wilson loops in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory and their string theory duals. The operators are defined for arbitrary contours on a two-sphere in space-time, and they were…
In axial gauge, the (2+1)-dimensional SU($N$) Yang-Mills theory is equivalent to a set of (1+1)-dimensional integrable models with a non-local coupling between charge densities. This fact makes it possible to determine the static potential…
The screening nature of the potential between external quarks in massless $SU(N_c)$ $QCD_2$ is derived using an expansion in $N_f$- the number of flavors. Applying the same method to the massive model, we find a confining potential. We…
These lectures give an introduction to duality in Quantum Field Theory. We discuss the phases of gauge theories and the implications of the electric-magnetic duality transformation to describe the mechanism of confinement. We review the…
In N=2 supersymmetric QCD with the U(N) gauge group and N_f>N we study the crossover transition from the weak coupling regime at large \xi to strong coupling at small \xi where \xi is the Fayet--Iliopoulos parameter. We find that at strong…
We outline a connection between scalar quark confinement, a phenomenologically successful concept heretofore lacking fundamental justification, and QCD. Although scalar confinement does not follow from QCD, there is an interesting and close…
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…
Two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory is a useful model of an exactly solvable gauge theory with a string theory dual at large $N$. We calculate entanglement entropy in the $1/N$ expansion by mapping the theory to a system of $N$ fermions…
Extending our previous work on SU(3), we construct spherically symmetric BPS saturated regular configurations of N=4 SU(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory preserving 1/4 supersymmetry, and investigate their features. We also give exact…
We study N=1 gauge theories obtained by adding finite mass terms to N=4 Yang-Mills theory. The Maldacena dual is nonsingular: in each of the many vacua, there is an extended brane source, arising from Myers' dielectric effect. The source…
Recently (hep-th/0104171) we considered N=2 super Yang-Mills with a N=2 mass breakingn term and showed the existence of BPS Z_{k}-string solutions for arbitrary simple gauge groups which are spontaneously broken to non-Abelian residual…