Related papers: Some Comments on QCD String

Supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions have taught us many important physics lessons. These can both inform and be informed by future work on the lattice. I focus on three issues: the properties of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory…

I review the status of the issue of the k-string tension in Yang-Mills theory. After a summary of known facts I discuss a weakly coupled four-dimensional Yang-Mills theory that supports non-Abelian strings and can, in certain aspects, serve…

We describe a topological string theory which reproduces many aspects of the 1/N expansion of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory in two spacetime dimensions in the zero coupling (A=0) limit. The string theory is a modified version of topological…

Quantization of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on a torus in the gauge where the field strength is diagonal leads to twisted sectors that are completely analogous to the ones that originate long string states in Matrix String Theory. If…

The loop representation of quantum gravity has many formal resemblances to a background-free string theory. In fact, its origins lie in attempts to treat the string theory of hadrons as an approximation to QCD, in which the strings…

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…

Two dimensional gauge theories with charged matter fields are useful toy models for studying gauge theory dynamics, and in particular for studying the duality of large $N$ gauge theories to perturbative string theories. A useful starting…

In earlier work we proposed a string theory dual to two dimensional Yang-Mills theory at zero coupling (which can also be thought of as a $BF$ theory), given by a Polyakov-like generalization of Ho\v rava's topological rigid string theory,…

In $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory without matter, there exist stable long electric fluxtube strings which carry a 1-form symmetry charge. Over the past decade or so, there has been increasing evidence from lattice calculations that the…

We propose various ways of adding mass terms to three-dimensional twistor string theory. We begin with a review of mini-twistor space--the reduction of D=4 twistor space to D=3. We adapt the two proposals for twistor string theory, Witten's…

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…

We write down all orders large $N$ expansions for the dimensions of irreducible representations of $O(N)$ and $Sp(N)$. We interpret all the terms in these expansions as symmetry factors for singular worldsheet configurations, involving…

We consider two-dimensional Yang-Mills theories on arbitrary Riemann surfaces. We introduce a generalized Yang-Mills action, which coincides with the ordinary one on flat surfaces but differs from it in its coupling to two-dimensional…

We discuss the equivalence between a string theory and the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with SU(N) gauge group for finite N. We find a sector which can be interpreted as a sum of covering maps from closed string world-sheets to the…

We present a string theory that reproduces the large-$N$ expansion of two dimensional Yang-Mills gauge theory on arbitrary surfaces. First, a new class of topological sigma models is introduced, with path integrals localized to the moduli…

We show that two-dimensional SO(N) and Sp(N) Yang-Mills theories without fermions can be interpreted as closed string theories. The terms in the 1/N expansion of the partition function on an orientable or nonorientable manifold M can be…

It is well known that by using the infinite dimensional symmetries that issue from string theories, one can build 2D geometric field theories. These 2D field theories can be identified with gravitational and gauge anomalies that arise in…

In these lecture notes from the 2002 Cargese summer school we review the progress that has been made towards finding a string theory for QCD (or for pure (super)Yang-Mills theory) following the discovery of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We…

Effective string theory describes the physics of long confining strings in theories, like Yang-Mills theory, where the mass gap $M_{gap}^2$ is of the same order as the string tension $T$. In $2+1$ dimensions, there is a class of confining…

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…