Form factor and width of a quantum string

Abstract

In the Yang-Mills theory, the apparent thickness of the confining string is known to grow logarithmically when its length increases. The same logarithmic broadening also happens to strings in other quantum field theories and domain walls in statistical physics models. Even in quantum field theories, the correlators used to measure and characterise this phenomenon are analogous to those in statistical physics. In this paper we describe it using the string form factor which is a meaningful quantum observable, obtainable in principle from scattering experiments. We show how the form factor can be obtained from field correlation functions calculated in lattice Monte Carlo simulations. We apply this method to 2+1-dimensional scalar theory in the strong coupling limit, where it is equivalent to the 3D Ising model, and through duality also to 2+1-dimensional ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ gauge theory. We measure the string form factor by simulating the Ising model, and demonstrate that it displays the same logarithmic broadening as observed by other quantities.

10 pages, 7 figures, v2: minor changes to wording of abstract and main text, version accepted by PRD

References in corpus (13)

• Surface Tension, Surface Stiffness, and Surface Width of the 3-dimensional Ising Model on a Cubic Lattice
• The Width of the Confining String in Yang-Mills Theory
• Width of Long Colour Flux Tubes in Lattice Gauge Systems
• High precision Monte Carlo simulations of interfaces in the three-dimensional Ising model: a comparison with the Nambu-Goto effective string model
• On the intrinsic width of the chromoelectric flux tube in finite temperature LGTs
• Profile and width of rough interfaces
• The Width of the Color Flux Tube at 2-Loop Order
• Linear broadening of the confining string in Yang-Mills theory at low temperature
• Study of the flux tube thickness in 3d LGT's by means of 2d spin models
• The transverse structure of the QCD string
• Soliton form factors from lattice simulations
• Nonperturbative study of the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole form factors
• Interfacial roughening in field theory

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Introductory lectures to large-N QCD phenomenology and lattice results
• Width of the flux tube in compact U(1) gauge theory in three dimensions
• The static quark potential from a multilevel algorithm for the improved gauge action
• Recent results in large-N lattice gauge theories