The Casimir Energy Paradox of the QCD String

TL;DR

The paper discusses a paradox in QCD string theory related to Casimir energy and proposes potential resolutions, challenging the conventional interpretation of early Casimir energy onset as evidence of string formation.

Contribution

It introduces a paradox in the interpretation of Casimir energy in QCD strings and suggests possible explanations for this discrepancy.

Findings

Identification of the Casimir energy paradox in QCD strings

Analysis of the scale where string eigenmodes are absent

Proposed hints towards resolving the paradox

Abstract

It is widely thought that the early onset of the asymptotic Casimir energy with unit conformal charge signals bosonic string formation of the confining flux connecting a static quark-antiquark pair in QCD. This is observed on a scale where most of the string eigenmodes do not exist and the few stable modes above the ground state are displaced. Hints for the resolution of this paradox are suggested.