Planar Limit of Orientifold Field Theories and Emergent Center Symmetry

Abstract

We consider orientifold field theories (i.e. SU(N) Yang--Mills theories with fermions in the two-index symmetric or antisymmetric representations) on R3xS1 where the compact dimension can be either temporal or spatial. These theories are planar equivalent to supersymmetric Yang--Mills. The latter has Z_N center symmetry. The famous Polyakov criterion establishing confinement-deconfinement phase transition as that from Z_N symmetric to Z_N broken phase applies. At the Lagrangian level the orientifold theories have at most a Z_2 center. We discuss how the full Z_N center symmetry dynamically emerges in the orientifold theories in the limit N-->infinity. In the confining phase the manifestation of this enhancement is the existence of stable k-strings in the large-N limit of the orientifold theories. These strings are identical to those of supersymmetric Yang--Mills theories. We argue that critical temperatures (and other features) of the confinement-deconfinement phase transition are the same in the orientifold daughters and their supersymmetric parent up to 1/N corrections. We also discuss the Abelian and non-Abelian confining regimes of four-dimensional QCD-like theories.

28 pages, 1 figure. v2: typos corrected, refs. added

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Deconfinement and continuity between thermal and (super) Yang-Mills theory for all gauge groups
• On Yang-Mills Theories with Chiral Matter at Strong Coupling
• 1-form symmetry versus large N QCD
• Center symmetry and Hagedorn spectrum
• Graded Hilbert spaces, quantum distillation and connecting SQCD to QCD
• Theoretical Developments in SUSY