Chiral Current Algebras in Three--Dimensional Bf--Theory with Boundary

We consider the three--dimensional BF--model with planar boundary in the axial gauge. We find two--dimensional conserved chiral currents living on the boundary and satisfying Kac--Moody algebras.Comment: 18 page

Center vortices, magnetic condensate and confinement in a simple gauge system

The confining mechanisms of 't Hooft and Mandelstam have a simple microscopic realization in 3D Z2 gauge theory: the center vortex and the magnetic monopole condensation are associated, in the set of configurations contributing to the confining phase, to the presence of two kinds of infinite clusters. These generate the area law of the large Wilson loops and the universal finite size effects produced by the quantum fluctuations of the bosonic string describing the infrared behavior of the flux tube.Comment: 8 pages, 4 eps figures. Contributed to NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Confinement, Topology, and other Nonperturbative Aspects of QCD, Stara Lesna, Slovakia, 21-27 Jan 200

The 2D effective field theory of interfaces derived from 3D field theory

The one--loop determinant computed around the kink solution in the 3D $\phi^4$ theory, in cylindrical geometry, allows one to obtain the partition function of the interface separating coexisting phases. The quantum fluctuations of the interface around its equilibrium position are described by a $c=1$ two--dimensional conformal field theory, namely a 2D free massless scalar field living on the interface. In this way the capillary wave model conjecture for the interface free energy in its gaussian approximation is proved.Comment: latex, 9 pages, no figure