Related papers: A String Theory for Two-Dimensional Yang-Mills The…

It has been recently proposed that string theory in the background of a plane wave corresponds to a certain subsector of the N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. This correspondence follows as a limit of the AdS/CFT duality. As a…

Recently, Witten proposed a topological string theory in twistor space that is dual to a weakly coupled gauge theory. In this lectures we will discuss aspects of the twistor string theory. Along the way we will learn new things about…

We consider circular non-BPS Maldacena-Wilson loops in five-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory (d = 5 SYM) both as macroscopic strings in the D4-brane geometry and directly in gauge theory. We find that in the Dp-brane geometries…

String configurations have been identified in compactified Matrix theory at vanishing string coupling. We show how the interactions of these strings are determined by the Yang-Mills gauge field on the worldsheet. At finite string coupling,…

Matrix string theory (arXiv:hep-th/9703030, arXiv:hep-th/9701025, arXiv:hep-th/9710009) is a conjectured duality between two-dimensional maximally supersymmetric $U(N)$ Yang-Mills theory and type-IIA string theory in ten-dimensional…

We argue that the string theory dual to a certain sector of the four-dimensional Yang-Mills theory at large-N is the A-model wrapping N-Lagrangian D-branes on the twistor space of the complex two-dimensional projective space, with certain…

Quantum Yang-Mills theory and the Wilson loop can be rewritten identically in terms of local gauge-invariant variables being directly related to the metric of the dual space. In this formulation, one reveals a hidden high local symmetry of…

We study some features of the confining string connecting a quark-anti-quark pair in Yang-Mills theory. Monte Carlo investigations of the flux tube between two static quarks in the fundamental representation show that its thickness…

The vacuum expectation value of the Wilson loop functional in pure Yang-Mills theory on an arbitrary two-dimensional orientable manifold is studied. We consider the calculation of this quantity for the abelian theory in the continuum case…

For correlators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills preserving half the supersymmetry, we manifestly recast the gauge theory Feynman diagram expansion as a sum over dual closed strings. Each individual Feynman diagram maps on to a Riemann…

We consider double-winding, triple-winding and multiple-winding Wilson loops in the $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills gauge theory. We examine how the area law falloff of the vacuum expectation value of a multiple-winding Wilson loop depends on the number…

Polyakov has conjectured that Yang-Mills theory should be equivalent to a noncritical string theory. I pointed out, based on the work of Marchesini, Ishibashi, Kawai and collaborators, and Jevicki and Rodrigues, that the loop operator of…

We show that the large N partition functions and Wilson loop observables of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theories admit a universal functional form irrespective of the gauge group. We demonstrate that U(N) QCD_2 undergoes a large N,…

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 give a new description of classical Yang-Mills theory by coupling a two-dimensional chiral CFT (which gives the tree-level S-matrix of Yang-Mills theory at genus zero) to a background non-abelian gauge field. The resulting model is…

We propose a definition of the Wilson loop operator in the N=1 beta-deformed supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Although the operator is not BPS, it has a finite expectation value at least up to order (g^2 N)^2. This does not happen…

We examine the problem of counting bound states of BPS black holes on local Calabi-Yau threefolds which are fibrations over a Riemann surface by computing the partition function of q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on the Riemann surface. We…

We consider supersymmetric Wilson loops a la Zarembo in planar supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in diverse dimensions. Using perturbation theory we show that these loops have trivial vacuum expectation values to second order in the 't…

This work is about pure Yang-Mills theory in four Euclidean dimensions with gauge group SU(N). We study rectangular smeared Wilson loops on the lattice at large N and relatively close to the large-N transition point in their eigenvalue…

It is known for ten years that self-dual Yang-Mills theory is the effective field theory of the open N=2 string in 2+2 dimensional spacetime. We uncover an infinite set of abelian rigid string symmetries, corresponding to the symmetries and…