Gluon Chain Model of the Confining Force

We develop a picture of the QCD string as a chain of constituent gluons, bound by attractive nearest-neighbor forces which may be treated perturbatively. This picture accounts for both Casimir scaling at large N, and the asymptotic center dependence of the static quark potential. We discuss the relevance, to the gluon-chain picture, of recent three-loop results for the static quark potential. A variational framework is presented for computing the minimal energy and wavefunction of a long gluon chain, which enables us to derive both the logarithmic broadening of the QCD flux tube (``roughening''), and the existence of a Luscher -c/R term in the potential.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, latex2

Bag Model for a Link in a Closed Gluonic Chain

The large $N_c$ limit of Yang-Mills gauge theory is the dynamics of a closed gluonic chain, but this fact does not obviate the inherently strong coupling nature of the dynamical problem. However, we suggest that a single link in such a chain might be reasonably described in the quasi-perturbative language of gluons and their interactions. To implement this idea, we use the MIT bag to model the physics of a nearest neighbor bond.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe

Calculating the Rest Tension for a Polymer of String Bits

We explore the application of approximation schemes from many body physics, including the Hartree-Fock method and random phase approximation (RPA), to the problem of analyzing the low energy excitations of a polymer chain made up of bosonic string bits. We accordingly obtain an expression for the rest tension $T_0$ of the bosonic relativistic string in terms of the parameters characterizing the microscopic string bit dynamics. We first derive an exact connection between the string tension and a certain correlation function of the many-body string bit system. This connection is made for an arbitrary interaction potential between string bits and relies on an exact dipole sum rule. We then review an earlier calculation by Goldstone of the low energy excitations of a polymer chain using RPA. We assess the accuracy of the RPA by calculating the first order corrections. For this purpose we specialize to the unique scale invariant potential, namely an attractive delta function potential in two (transverse) dimensions. We find that the corrections are large, and discuss a method for summing the large terms. The corrections to this improved RPA are roughly 15\%.Comment: 44 pages, phyzzx, psfig required, Univ. of Florida preprint, UFIFT-HEP-94

Scattering of Glue by Glue on the Light-cone Worldsheet II: Helicity Conserving Amplitudes

This is the second of a pair of articles on scattering of glue by glue, in which we give the light-cone gauge calculation of the one-loop on-shell helicity conserving scattering amplitudes for gluon-gluon scattering (neglecting quark loops). The 1/p^+ factors in the gluon propagator are regulated by replacing p^+ integrals with discretized sums omitting the p^+=0 terms in each sum. We also employ a novel ultraviolet regulator that is convenient for the light-cone worldsheet description of planar Feynman diagrams. The helicity conserving scattering amplitudes are divergent in the infra-red. The infrared divergences in the elastic one-loop amplitude are shown to cancel, in their contribution to cross sections, against ones in the cross section for unseen bremsstrahlung gluons. We include here the explicit calculation of the latter, because it assumes an unfamiliar form due to the peculiar way discretization of p^+ regulates infrared divergences. In resolving the infrared divergences we employ a covariant definition of jets, which allows a transparent demonstration of the Lorentz invariance of our final results. Because we use an explicit cutoff of the ultraviolet divergences in exactly 4 space-time dimensions, we must introduce explicit counterterms to achieve this final covariant result. These counter-terms are polynomials in the external momenta of the precise order dictated by power-counting. We discuss the modifications they entail for the light-cone worldsheet action that reproduces the ``bare'' planar diagrams of the gluonic sector of QCD. The simplest way to do this is to interpret the QCD string as moving in six space-time dimensions.Comment: 56 pages, 21 figures, references added, minor typos correcte

More On The Connection Between Planar Field Theory And String Theory

We continue work on the connection between world sheet representation of the planar phi^3 theory and string formation. The present article, like the earlier work, is based on the existence of a solitonic solution on the world sheet, and on the zero mode fluctuations around this solution. The main advance made in this paper is the removal of the cutoff and the transition to the continuum limit on the world sheet. The result is an action for the modes whose energies remain finite in this limit (light modes). The expansion of this action about a dense background of graphs on the world sheet leads to the formation of a string.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figure

Field Theory On The World Sheet: Improvements And Generalizations

This article is the continuation of a project of investigating planar phi^3 model in various dimensions. The idea is to reformulate them on the world sheet, and then to apply the classical (meanfield) approximation, with two goals: To show that the ground state of the model is a solitonic configuration on the world sheet, and the quantum fluctuations around the soliton lead to the formation of a transverse string. After a review of some of the earlier work, we introduce and discuss several generalizations and new results. In 1+2 dimensions, a rigorous upper bound on the solitonic energy is established. A phi^4 interaction is added to stabilize the original phi^3 model. In 1+3 and 1+5 dimensions, an improved treatment of the ultraviolet divergences is given. And significantly, we show that our approximation scheme can be imbedded into a systematic strong coupling expansion. Finally, the spectrum of quantum fluctuations around the soliton confirms earlier results: In 1+2 and 1+3 dimensions, a transverse string is formed on the world sheet.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, several typos and eqs.(74) and (75) are corrected, a comment added to section

1+11+1-Dimensional Large NN QCD coupled to Adjoint Fermions

We consider 1+1-dimensional QCD coupled to Majorana fermions in the adjoint representation of the gauge group $SU(N)$. Pair creation of partons (fermion quanta) is not suppressed in the large-$N$ limit, where the glueball-like bound states become free. In this limit the spectrum is given by a linear \lc\ Schr\" odinger equation, which we study numerically using the discretized \lcq. We find a discrete spectrum of bound states, with the logarithm of the level density growing approximately linearly with the mass. The wave function of a typical excited state is a complicated mixture of components with different parton numbers. A few low-lying states, however, are surprisingly close to being eigenstates of the parton number, and their masses can be accurately calculated by truncated diagonalizations.Comment: 22 pages + 9 figures (available by request from [email protected]), uses phyzzx.tex + tables.tex PUPT-1413, IASSNS-HEP-93/4

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking at Infinite Momentum without P+ Zero-Modes

The nonrelativistic interpretation of quantum field theory achieved by quantization in an infinite momentum frame is spoiled by the inclusion of a mode of the field carrying p+=0. We therefore explore the viability of doing without such a mode in the context of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), where its presence would seem to be most needed. We show that the physics of SSB in scalar quantum field theory in 1+1 space-time dimensions is accurately described without a zero-mode.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, 3 eps figure

Quantum Newtonian Dynamics on a Light Front

We recall the special features of quantum dynamics on a light-front (in an infinite momentum frame) in string and field theory. The reason this approach is more effective for string than for fields is stressed: the light-front dynamics for string is that of a true Newtonian many particle system, since a string bit has a fixed Newtonian mass. In contrast, each particle of a field theory has a variable Newtonian mass P^+, so the Newtonian analogy actually requires an infinite number of species of elementary Newtonian particles. This complication substantially weakens the value of the Newtonian analogy in applying light-front dynamics to nonperturbative problems. Motivated by the fact that conventional field theories can be obtained as infinite tension limits of string theories, we propose a way to recast field theory as a standard Newtonian system. We devise and analyze some simple quantum mechanical systems that display the essence of the proposal, and we discuss prospects for applying these ideas to large N_c QCD.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, LaTex, psfig, references added, APS copyrigh

String Bit Models for Superstring

We extend the model of string as a polymer of string bits to the case of superstring. We mainly concentrate on type II-B superstring, with some discussion of the obstacles presented by not II-B superstring, together with possible strategies for surmounting them. As with previous work on bosonic string we work within the light-cone gauge. The bit model possesses a good deal less symmetry than the continuous string theory. For one thing, the bit model is formulated as a Galilei invariant theory in $(D-2)+1$ dimensional space-time. This means that Poincar\'e invariance is reduced to the Galilei subgroup in $D-2$ space dimensions. Naturally the supersymmetry present in the bit model is likewise dramatically reduced. Continuous string can arise in the bit models with the formation of infinitely long polymers of string bits. Under the right circumstances (at the critical dimension) these polymers can behave as string moving in $D$ dimensional space-time enjoying the full $N=2$ Poincar\'e supersymmetric dynamics of type II-B superstring.Comment: 43 pages, phyzzx require