Large N and confining flux tubes as strings - a view from the lattice

Abstract

I begin these three lectures by describing some of the useful things that we have learned about large-N gauge theories using lattice simulations. For example that the theory is confining in that limit, that for many quantities SU(3) is close to SU(oo), and that this includes the strongly coupled gluon plasma just above Tc, thus providing some of the justification needed to make use of gauge-gravity duality in analysing QCD at RHIC/LHC temperatures. I then turn, in a more detailed discussion, to recent progress on the problem of what effective string theory describes confining flux tubes. I describe lattice calculations of the energy spectrum of closed loops of confining flux, and some dramatic analytic progress in extending the `universal Luscher correction' to terms that are of higher order in 1/l, where l is the length of the string. Both approaches point increasingly to the Nambu-Goto free string theory as being the appropriate starting point for describing string-like degrees of freedom in SU(N) gauge theories.

Lectures at the 49'th Cracow School of Theoretical Physics; 78 pages

References in corpus (14)

• Thermodynamics of the QCD plasma and the large-N limit
• Closed k-strings in SU(N) gauge theories : 2+1 dimensions
• The closed string spectrum of SU(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions
• The Hamiltonian Approach to Yang-Mills (2+1): An Expansion Scheme and Corrections to String Tension
• The deconfining phase transition in D=2+1 SU(N) gauge theories
• Spectrum of the QCD flux tube in 3d SU(2) lattice gauge theory
• Computation of the string tension in four-dimensional Yang-Mills theory using large N reduction
• Spectrum to all orders of Polchinski-Strominger {Effective} String Theory of Polyakov-Liouville Type
• All Conformal Effective String Theories are Isospectral to Nambu-Goto Theory
• Spectrum to all orders of Polchinski-Strominger Effective String Theories of the Drummond Type
• Covariant Calculus for Effective String Theories
• Determination of the running coupling in pure SU(4) Yang-Mills theory
• Luescher-Weisz algorithm for excited states of the QCD flux-tube
• Subleading properties of the QCD flux-tube in 3-d lattice gauge theory

Cited by in corpus (18)

• The Effective Theory of Long Strings
• On finite-temperature holographic QCD in the Veneziano limit
• Thermodynamics of SU(N) Yang-Mills theories in 2+1 dimensions II - The deconfined phase
• Casimir scaling and renormalization of Polyakov loops in large-N gauge theories
• Lorentz completion of effective string (and p-brane) action
• Dark matter scattering cross section and dynamics in dark Yang-Mills theory
• Universal signatures of the effective string in finite temperature lattice gauge theories
• Three dimensional finite temperature SU(3) gauge theory in the confined region and the string picture
• On the weak N-dependence of SO(N) and SU(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions
• Intrinsic Thickness of QCD Flux-Tubes
• A minimal quasiparticle approach for the QGP and its large-$N_c$ limits
• Recent results in large-N lattice gauge theories
• Heavy Quark Potential from Gauge/Gravity Duality: A Large D Analysis
• Interglueball potential in SU(N) lattice gauge theory
• Renormalization of Polyakov loops in different representations and the large-N limit
• QCD, with Strings Attached
• On the holographic width of flux tubes
• The "hard" problem of strong of interactions