Related papers: Critical Boundary Conditions for the Effective Str…
The effective string describing the large distance behaviour of the quark sources of gauge field theories in the confining phase in D=3 or D=4 space-time dimensions can be formulated, in the infrared limit, as a suitable 2D conformal field…
The quantum fluctuations of the flux tube joining two static sources in the confining phase of a lattice gauge theory are described by an effective string theory. The predictions of the latter for ratios of Wilson loops of equal perimeter…
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…
Some model-independent properties of the effective string of gauge field systems in the confining phase , for very large quark separations, are described in terms of two-dimensional conformal field theories. The constraints induced by the…
We test numerically the effective string description of the infrared limit of lattice gauge theories in the confining regime. We consider the 3d Z(2) lattice gauge theory, and we define ratios of Wilson loops such that the predictions of…
Using a new type of simulation algorithm for the standard SU(3) lattice gauge theory that yields results with unprecedented precision, we confirm the presence of a $\gamma/r$ correction to the static quark potential at large distances $r$,…
The random percolation model can be viewed as the dual of a well defined confining gauge theory; since this theory, having no Monte Carlo dynamics at all, is simple to simulate, it is possible to study the properties of the flux tube with…
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…
We study the physics of open strings in bosonic and type II string theories in the presence of unstable D-branes. When the potential energy of the open string tachyon is at its minimum, Sen has argued that only closed strings remain in the…
Simulations in lattice gauge theory suggest that the formation of a flux tube between quark and antiquark leads to quark confinement. It is conjectured that the infrared behaviour of the flux tube is governed by an effective string theory…
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…
Confining strings in 4D are effective, thick strings describing the confinement phase of compact U(1) and, possibly, also non-Abelian gauge fields. We show that these strings are dual to the gauge fields, inasmuch as their perturbative…
We calculate in the SU(6) gauge theory the mass of the lightest flux loop that winds around a spatial torus, as a function of the torus size, taking care to achieve control of the main systematic errors. For comparison we perform a similar…
In the confining phase of any gauge system the mean squared width of the colour flux tube joining a pair of quarks should grow logarithmically as a function of their distance, according to the effective string description of its infrared…
We review the current knowledge about the theoretical foundations of the effective string theory for confining flux tubes and the comparison of the predictions to pure gauge lattice data. A concise presentation of the effective string…
We review some universal features of the colour flux tube of gauge theories in the confining phase predicted by the infrared conformal limit of the underlying string theory. In particular we discuss shape effects in Wilson loops and…
Bosonic string formation in gauge theories is reviewed with particular attention to the confining flux in lattice QCD and its string theory description. Recent results on the Casimir energy of the ground state and the string excitation…
We show that quantum systems of extended objects naturally give rise to a large class of exotic phases - namely topological phases. These phases occur when the extended objects, called ``string-nets'', become highly fluctuating and…
It is argued that the effective string of whatever 3D gauge system at the deconfining transition is universally described by the minimal $N=2$ extended superconformal theory at $c=1$. A universal value of the critical temperature is…
It is shown that the effective string recently introduced to describe the long distance dynamics of 3D gauge systems in the confining phase has an intriguing description in terms of models of 2D self-avoiding walks in the dense phase. The…