Undressing Confining Flux Tubes with $T\bar T$

TL;DR

This paper introduces a systematic method using $T\bar T$ deformation to incorporate polarization effects in the analysis of confining flux tubes from lattice QCD, improving the extraction of the worldsheet S-matrix.

Contribution

It demonstrates that $T\bar T$ deformation offers a straightforward way to include polarization effects in non-integrable and multiparticle scenarios, advancing the analysis of confining strings.

Findings

$T\bar T$ deformation systematically incorporates polarization effects.

The method applies to inelastic and multiparticle states.

Examples illustrate the technique's effectiveness.

Abstract

Lattice QCD simulations provide crucial information about the worldsheet dynamics of confining strings (flux tubes). An accurate extraction of the worldsheet $S$-matrix from lattice spectra requires accounting for polarization effects. Approximate integrability of the low energy worldsheet theory makes it possible to apply the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz to incorporate polarization effects at all orders in the number of windings and at the leading order in the derivative expansion. However, a systematic application of this technique in the presence of non-integrable effects and for multiparticle states becomes increasingly challenging. We point out that a recently understood equivalence between gravitational dressing and $T\bar{T}$ deformation provides a fully systematic and straightforward recipe to incorporate the leading polarization effects in the presence of an arbitrary inelasticity and for any number of particles. We illustrate this technique with several examples.