The Integrable Chromodynamic Flux Tube

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Gauge theories lie at the heart of our understanding of three of the four known forces in nature: the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces. Moreover, our best candidate for uniting quantum theory and gravity – string theory – is itself best defined through a gauge theory by means of the so-called gauge/string dualities. (These are remarkable correspondences stating the precise equivalence between certain gauge theories and string theories in curved space-times with one extra spatial dimension.) Despite their absolutely central role in physics, gauge theories are very far from being tamed with our current theoretical tools. A mathematically sound analytic description of physical phenomena such as confinement, chiral symmetric breaking and the existence of a mass gap is simply not available and the precise field theory mechanism by which gauge/string dualities come about is still elusive. To address these fascinating questions, one needs control over gauge theories in the strongly coupled regime, where standard perturbative techniques fall short. New conceptual approaches and tools are urgently needed.