Chiral Composite Linear Dilaton as String Dual to Two-Dimensional Yang-Mills

TL;DR

This paper explores a string dual to large N chiral 2D Yang-Mills theory, analyzing its worldsheet structure, operator expansions, and scattering amplitudes, thus advancing understanding of its noncritical string description.

Contribution

It proposes and analyzes a bosonic string dual with a linear dilaton for chiral 2D YM at finite coupling, connecting it to nonrelativistic string theory.

Findings

Detailed worldsheet operator product expansion analysis

Computation of three- and four-point scattering amplitudes

Identification of the string dual as a noncritical nonrelativistic string

Abstract

Two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory (2d YM) is arguably the simplest confining gauge theory and its large $N_c$ expansion has a structure of the genus expansion in string theory. Nevertheless various aspects of its worldsheet description have not been fully understood. In this paper, we elaborate on a bosonic string dual to large $N_c$ chiral 2d YM at finite 't Hooft coupling, proposed in our earlier work. The worldsheet theory consists of $\beta$-$\gamma$ system deformed by linear dilaton action built from a composite of $\gamma$. It can be seen as a noncritical version of nonrelativistic string theory introduced by Gomis and Ooguri. We provide a detailed analysis of the worldsheet operator product expansion and the computation of three- and four-point scattering amplitudes.