Study of Wilson loop functionals in 2D Yang-Mills theories

Abstract

The derivation of the explicit formula for the vacuum expectation value of the Wilson loop functional for an arbitrary gauge group on an arbitrary orientable two-dimensional manifold is considered both in the continuum case and on the lattice. A contribution to this quantity, coming from the space of invariant connections, is also analyzed and is shown to be similar to the contribution of monopoles.

19 pages, Latex, 2 Postscript figures, uses epsfig.sty. Contribution to the Proceedings of the XIIth Workshop on High Energy Physics and Quantum Field Theory (Samara, Russia, September 4-10, 1997). (in the revised version typographical errors are corrected and references are updated)