Related papers: World-Sheet Defects, Strings, and Quark Confinemen…
According to the `Cosmological Central Dogma', de Sitter space can be viewed as a quantum mechanical system with a finite number of degrees of freedom, set by the horizon area. We use this assumption together with the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW)…
All the models of elementary particles and their interactions derived from String Theory involve a compact six-dimensional internal space. Its volume and shape should be fixed or stabilized, since otherwise massless scalar fields (moduli)…
We calculate the low-lying spectra of glueballs and confining flux tubes in the U(1) lattice gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions. We see that up to modest lattice spacing corrections, the glueball states are consistent with being multiparticle…
We present a study of the worldsheets that describe the classical limit of various string scattering processes. Our main focus is on string scattering in AdS spacetime because of its relation via the AdS/CFT correspondence to gluon…
We construct a new class of exact and stable superstring solutions based on $N=4$ superconformal world-sheet symmetry. In a subclass of these, the full spectrum of string excitations is derived in a modular-invariant way. In the weak…
We determine the low-energy N=(0,2) worldsheet dynamics of vortex strings in a large class of non-Abelian N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories.
We study a class of dilatonic deformations of asymptotically AdS_5 X S^5 geometry analytically and numerically. The spacetime is non-supersymmetric and suffers from a naked singularity. We propose that the causality bound may serve as a…
We propose a hypothesis that all gauge theories are equivalent to a certain non-standard string theory. Different gauge groups are accounted for by weights ascribed to the world sheets of different topologies. The hypothesis is checked in…
We show that, in string theory, as a result of the $W_{\infty}$-symmetries that preserve quantum coherence in the {\it full} string theory by coupling different mass levels, transitions between initial- and final-state density matrices for…
We introduce the complex Liouville string, a solvable string theory defined by coupling two Liouville theories with complex conjugate central charges $c \in 13+i \mathbb{R}$ on the worldsheet. We compute its amplitudes from first principles…
We study path-integrals over reparametrizations of the world-sheet boundary. Such integrals arise when string propagates between fixed space-time contours. In gauge/string duality they are needed to describe gauge theory Wilson loops. We…
We study the three-dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge theory at finite temperature using an observable which is dual to the Wilson line. This observable displays a behaviour which is the reverse of that seen for the Wilson line. It is non-zero…
Yang-Mills theory in AdS$_{4}$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions is expected to undergo a transition as the AdS radius varies, since the boundary data is incompatible with confinement in flat space. Various mechanisms have been proposed…
I review recent work on computing radiative corrections to non-abelian gauge couplings in four-dimensional heterotic vacua with spontaneously broken supersymmetry. The prototype models can be considered as K3 surfaces with additional…
We consider circular non-BPS Maldacena-Wilson loops in five-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory (d = 5 SYM) both as macroscopic strings in the D4-brane geometry and directly in gauge theory. We find that in the Dp-brane geometries…
In the presence of the constant background NS two-form gauge field, we construct the worldsheet partition functions, bulk propagators and boundary propagators for the worldsheets with a handle and a boundary. We analyze the noncommutative…
We propose a worldsheet description for the ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$ string theory dual to large $N$, free ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills in four dimensions. The worldsheet theory is a natural generalisation of the recently investigated…
Confinement in SU($N$) gauge theory is due to the linear potential between colored objects. At short distances, the linear contribution could be considered as the quadratic correction to the leading Coulomb term. Recent lattice data show…
In theories with flat directions containing vortices, such as supersymmetric QED, there is a vacuum selection effect in the allowed asymptotic configurations. We explain the role played by gauge fields in this effect and give a simple…
Time-dependent solutions of supergravity and string theory are studied. The examples are obtained from de Sitter deformation of gauge/gravity dualities, analytical continuation of static solutions, and ``exactly solvable'' worldsheet…