Confining Strings

TL;DR

This paper hypothesizes that all gauge theories can be represented as a specific non-standard string theory, with evidence provided for abelian cases and partial results for non-abelian theories.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis linking gauge theories to string theories and demonstrates its validity in abelian cases, with partial insights into non-abelian cases.

Findings

Reproduces monopole-instanton condensation via surface summation in abelian theories

Shows loop equations are satisfied in non-abelian theories up to contact terms

Proposes a unified string-theoretic framework for gauge theories

Abstract

We propose a hypothesis that all gauge theories are equivalent to a certain non-standard string theory. Different gauge groups are accounted for by weights ascribed to the world sheets of different topologies. The hypothesis is checked in the case of the compact abelian theories, where we show how condensing monopole -instanton fields are reproduced by the summation over surfaces. In the non-abelian case we prove that the loop equations are satisfied modulo contact terms. The structure of these terms unfortunately remains undetermined.