On the field/string theory approach to theta dependence in large N Yang-Mills theory

Gregory Gabadadze

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    The theta dependence of the vacuum energy in large N Yang-Mills theory has been studied some time ago by Witten using a duality of large N gauge theories with string theory compactified on a certain space-time. We show that within the field theory context vacuum fluctuations of the topological charge give rise to the vacuum energy consistent with the string theory computation. Furthermore, we calculate 1 /N suppressed corrections to the string theory result. The reconciliation of the string and field theory approaches is based on the fact that the gauge theory instantons carry zerobrane charge in the corresponding D-brane construction of Yang-Mills theory. Given the formula for the vacuum energy we study certain aspects of stability of the false vacua of the model for different realizations of the initial conditions. The vacuum structure appears to be different depending on whether N is infinite or, alternatively, large but finite.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)194-208
    Number of pages15
    JournalNuclear Physics B
    Volume552
    Issue number1-2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jul 12 1999

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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