We carry out a gauge invariant analysis of certain perturbations of
D−2-branes solutions of low energy string theories. We get generically a
system of second order coupled differential equations, and show that only in
very particular cases it is possible to reduce it to just one differential
equation. Later, we apply it to a multi-parameter, generically singular family
of constant dilaton solutions of non-critical string theories in D
dimensions, a generalization of that recently found in arXiv:0709.0471[hep-th].
According to arguments coming from the holographic gauge theory-gravity
correspondence, and at least in some region of the parameters space, we obtain
glue-ball spectra of Yang-Mills theories in diverse dimensions, putting special
emphasis in the scalar metric perturbations not considered previously in the
literature in the non critical setup. We compare our numerical results to those
studied previously and to lattice results, finding qualitative and in some
cases, tuning properly the parameters, quantitative agreement. These results
seem to show some kind of universality of the models, as well as an irrelevance
of the singular character of the solutions. We also develop the analysis for
the T-dual, non trivial dilaton family of solutions, showing perfect agreement
between them.Comment: A new reference added