String Duals of Two-Dimensional Yang-Mills Theory and Symmetric Product Orbifolds

We propose a bosonic string dual to large <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <a:mrow> <a:mi>N</a:mi> </a:mrow> </a:math> chiral Yang-Mills theory in two dimensions at finite `t Hooft coupling. The worldsheet theory is a <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <c:mrow> <c:mi>β</c:mi> <c:mtext>−</c:mtext> <c:mi>γ</c:mi> </c:mrow> </c:math> system deformed by a chiral Polchinski-Strominger term. We reproduce the partition function on a torus, cylinder three-point amplitudes, and the area law for Wilson loops. We also present candidate string duals to symmetric product orbifolds for general seed conformal field theories with <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <e:mi>c</e:mi> <e:mo><</e:mo> <e:mn>24</e:mn> </e:math> and their <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <g:mrow> <g:mi>T</g:mi> <g:mover accent="true"> <g:mrow> <g:mi>T</g:mi> </g:mrow> <g:mrow> <g:mo stretchy="false">¯</g:mo> </g:mrow> </g:mover> </g:mrow> </g:math> , <k:math xmlns:k="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <k:mrow> <k:mi>J</k:mi> <k:mover accent="true"> <k:mrow> <k:mi>T</k:mi> </k:mrow> <k:mrow> <k:mo stretchy="false">¯</k:mo> </k:mrow> </k:mover> </k:mrow> </k:math> deformations. The results hint at interrelations among confining, nonrelativistic, and matrix strings and <o:math xmlns:o="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <o:mrow> <o:msub> <o:mrow> <o:mi>AdS</o:mi> </o:mrow> <o:mrow> <o:mn>3</o:mn> </o:mrow> </o:msub> <o:mo>/</o:mo> <o:mrow> <o:msub> <o:mrow> <o:mi>CFT</o:mi> </o:mrow> <o:mrow> <o:mn>2</o:mn> </o:mrow> </o:msub> </o:mrow> </o:mrow> </o:math> .