Related papers: Large N 2D Yang-Mills Theory and Topological Strin…

A four-dimensional analog of Chern-Simons theory produces integrable lattice models from Wilson lines and surface operators. We show that this theory describes a quasi-topological sector of maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in six…

Taking the N=2 strings as the starting point, we discuss the equivalent self-dual field theories and analyse their symmetry structure in 2+2 dimensions. Restoring the full `Lorentz' invariance in the target space necessarily leads to an…

Topological gravity is equivalent to physical gravity in two dimensions in a way that is still mysterious, though by now it has been proved by Kontsevich. In this paper it is shown that a similar relation between topological and physical…

We observe that the string field theory actions for the topological sigma models describe higher or categorified Chern-Simons theories. These theories yield dynamical equations for connective structures on higher principal bundles. As a…

We construct the matrix description for a twisted version of the IIA string theory on S^1 with fermions antiperiodic around a spatial circle. The result is a 2+1-dimensional U(N) x U(N) nonsupersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with fermionic…

Some gauge theories with Coulomb branches exhibit singularities in perturbation theory, which are usually resolved by nonperturbative physics. In string theory this corresponds to the resolution of timelike singularities near the core of…

We address the issue of the worldsheet and spacetime covariant formulation for matrix strings. The problem is solved in the limit of vanishing string coupling. To go beyond the g_s = 0 limit, we propose a topological quantum field theory as…

The small-scale structure of a string connecting a pair of static sources is explored for the weakly-coupled anisotropic SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in (2+1) dimensions. A crucial ingredient in the formulation of the string Hamiltonian is the…

Non-supersymmetric Yang-Mill gauge theory in 4-dimension is shown to be dual to 4-dimensional non-supersymmetric string theory in a twisted AdS2(n)xT2 spacetime background. The partition function of a generic hadron is calculated to…

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…

Geometric quantization of 2+1 dimensional pure Yang-Mills theory is studied with focusing on finite large scales. It is previously shown that (Yildirim, 2015, Int. J. Mod. Phys A, 30(7), 1550034), topologically massive Yang-Mills theory…

We show that topological strings on a class of non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds is equivalent to two dimensional bosonic U(N) Yang-Mills on a torus. We explain this correspondence using the recent results on the equivalence of the…

There are at present two known string theories in $(2,2)$ dimensions. One of them is the well known $N=2$ string, and the other one is a more recently constructed $N=1$ spacetime supersymmetric string. They are both based on certain…

Higher dimensional generalisations of self-duality conditions and of theta angle terms are analysed in Yang-Mills theories. For the theory on a torus, the torus metric and various antisymmetric tensors are viewed as coupling constants…

We count the number of bound states of BPS black holes on local Calabi-Yau three-folds involving a Riemann surface of genus g. We show that the corresponding gauge theory on the brane reduces to a q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on the Riemann…

We describe a class of six-dimensional conformal field theories that have some properties in common with and possibly are related to a subsector of the tensionless string theories. The latter theories can for example give rise to…

String theory in two-dimensional spacetime illuminates two main threads of recent development in string theory: (1) Open/closed string duality, and (2) Tachyon condensation. In two dimensions, many aspects of these phenomena can be explored…

N=2* gauge theory in four space-time dimensions arises as a deformation of the parent N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mill theory under which its hypermultiplet acquires a mass. This theory, on the one hand, has a known supergravity dual and on the…

Different string theories in twistor space have recently been proposed for describing ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills. In this paper, my Strings 2003 talk is reviewed in which a string theory in $(x,\theta)$ space was constructed for…

We discuss the precise relation of the open N=2 string to a self-dual Yang-Mills (SDYM) system in 2+2 dimensions. In particular, we review the description of the string target space action in terms of SDYM in a ``picture hyperspace''…