Related papers: Large N
We study the deconfinement phase transition in SU(N) gauge theories for $N$=2,3,4,6,8. The transition is first order for $N \ge 3$, with the strength increasing as $N$ increases. We extrapolate $T_c/\sqrt{\sigma}$ to the continuum limit for…
We calculate the low-lying glueball spectrum and various string tensions in SU(N) lattice gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions, and extrapolate the results to the continuum limit. We do so for for the range N=2 to N=16 so as to control the…
In $\mathrm{U(1)}$ lattice gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions, confinement can be analytically shown to persist at all values of the coupling. Furthermore, the explicit predictions for the dependence of string tension $\sigma$ and…
I review some of the things we have learned about large N gauge theories (and QCD at N=oo) from lattice calculations in recent years. I point to some open problems.
We extend our earlier investigation of the finite temperature deconfinement transition in SU(N) gauge theories, with the emphasis on what happens as N->oo. We calculate the latent heat in the continuum limit, and find the expected quadratic…
We consider properties of confining strings in 2+1 dimensional SU(2) nonabelian gauge theory with the Higgs field in adjoint representation. The analysis is carried out in the context of effective dual Lagrangian which describes the…
In U(1) lattice gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions, the problem of confinement can be studied analytically in a semi-classical approach, in terms of a gas of monopoles with Coulomb-like interactions. In addition, this theory can be…
We study the effective bosonic string that describes confining flux tubes in three-dimensional SU(N) Yang--Mills theories. Although the low-energy properties are universal and well described by the Nambu--Got\=o action, the subtle…
We propose gauging matrix models of string theory to eliminate unwanted non-singlet states. To this end we perform a discretised light-cone quantisation of large N gauge theory in 1+1 dimensions, with scalar or fermionic matter fields…
It is generally known for $\mathrm{U}(N)$ gauge theory at finite temperature that phase transitions are manifested by taking the large-$N$ limit. Since the large-$N$ theory undergoes two thermodynamic phase transitions, a nontrivial…
We show that three-dimensional N=8 $Sp(N)$ and $SO(2N+1)$ gauge theories flow to the same strong coupling fixed point. As a consequence, the corresponding orientifold two-planes in type IIA string theory are described at strong coupling and…
In the presence of a static quark--antiquark pair, the spectrum of the low-lying states in SU($N$) gauge theories is discrete and likely to be described, at large quark separations $r$, by an effective string theory. The expansion of the…
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…
In the first part of this contribution we present a numerical study motivated by recent attempts to understand the nonperturbative aspects of QCD at temperatures T~ a few times the deconfinement temperature Tc. We focus on the pure gauge…
We calculate the k=2 string tensions in SU(4) and SU(5) gauge theories in 3+1 dimensions, and compare them to the k=1 fundamental string tensions. We find, from the continuum extrapolation of our lattice calculations, that K(k=2)/K(k=1) =…
We present our current results for the deconfining temperatures in SO(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions. SO(2N) theories may help us to understand QCD at finite chemical potential since there is a large-N orbifold equivalence between…
We use lattice techniques to study the closed-string spectrum of SU(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions. We calculate the energies of the lowest lying ~30 states for strings with lengths between l ~ 0.45 fm and l ~ 3 fm, and compare to…
We show that SU(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions are close to N=\infty for N \geq 2. The dimensionful coupling, g^2, is proportional to 1/N, at large N, confirming the usual diagram-based expectation. Preliminary calculations in 3+1…
In pure SU(N) gauge theory in four dimensions, we determine the string tension at large N from smeared rectangular Wilson loops on the lattice. We learn how well loops of sizes barely on the strong-coupling side of the large-N transition in…
We calculate energies and tensions of closed k-strings in (2+1)-dimensional SU(N) gauge theories with N=4,5,6,8. When we study the dependence of the ground state energy on the string length, we find that it is well described by a Nambu-Goto…