Related papers: The Large N Harmonic Oscillator as a String Theory
During the last ten years, intriguing dualities between gauge and string theory have been found and explored. They provide a novel window on strongly coupled gauge physics, including QCD-like models. Based on a short historical review of…
In these lectures we give a brief introduction to perturbative and non-perturbative string theory. The outline is the following: 1. Introduction to perturbative string theory 1.1 From point particle to extended objects 1.2 Free closed and…
We explore gauge fields - strings duality by means of the loop equations and the zigzag symmetry. The results are striking and incomplete. Striking - because we find that the string ansatz proposed in [A.M. Polyakov, hep-th/9711002]…
Superstring theory, and a recent extension called M theory, are leading candidates for a quantum theory that unifies gravity with the other forces. As such, they are certainly not ordinary quantum field theories. However, recent duality…
Two different mechanisms exist in non-perturbative String / M- theory for enhanced SU(N) (SO(2N)) gauge symmetries. It can appear in type IIA string theory or M-theory near an $A_{N-1}$ (D_N) type singularity where membrnes wrapped around…
The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…
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…
Wilson loops in large N gauge theory exhibit a weak to strong coupling transition as the loop is dilated. A multiplicative matrix model captures the universal behavior associated with this transition. A universal scaling function is…
Postulate of SL(2,\Z) invariance of toroidally compactified heterotic string theory in four dimensions implies the existence of new string (dual string) states carrying both, electric and magnetic charges. In this paper we study the…
This report presents some studies of the gauge/string theory correspondence, a deep relation that is possible to establish between quantum field theories with local gauge symmetry and superstring theories including gravity. In its original…
We study the correspondence between the linear matrix model and the interacting nonlinear string theory. Starting from the simple matrix harmonic oscillator states, we derive in a direct way scattering amplitudes of 2-dimensional strings,…
We consider a four dimensional N=1 gauge theory with bifundamental matter and a superpotential, defined on stacks of fractional branes. By turning on a flux for the R-R graviphoton field strength and computing open string amplitudes with…
We exhibit the gauge-group independence (``universality'') of all normalized non-intersecting Wilson loop expectation values in the large N limit of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. This universality is most easily understood via the…
We argue that two four-dimensional strongly coupled superconformal field theories, on the Higgs branch in certain large N limits, become respectively (2,0) theory and (1,1) little string theory in six dimensions. We identify the spectrum of…
We calculate the string tension and part of the mass spectrum of SU(4) and SU(6) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions using lattice techniques. We combine these new results with older results for N=2,...,5 so as to obtain more accurate…
I begin these three lectures by describing some of the useful things that we have learned about large-N gauge theories using lattice simulations. For example that the theory is confining in that limit, that for many quantities SU(3) is…
We review some examples of heterotic/type II string duality which shed light on the infrared dynamics of string compactifications with N=2 and N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions.
We suggest a means of obtaining certain Green's functions in 3+1-dimensional ${\cal N} = 4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with a large number of colors via non-critical string theory. The non-critical string theory is related to critical…
A free superstring with chiral N=2 supersymmetry in six dimensions is proposed. It couples to a two-form gauge field with a self-dual field strength. Compactification to four dimensions on a two-torus gives a strongly coupled N=4…
String theory and supersymmetry are theoretical ideas that go beyond the standard model of particle physics and show promise for unifying all forces. After a brief introduction to supersymmetry, we discuss the prospects for its experimental…