The Integrable Chromodynamic Flux Tube

规范理论是我们理解自然界四种已知力中的三种力的核心：电磁力、弱力和强力。此外，我们统一量子理论和引力的最佳候选者——弦理论——本身就是通过规范理论通过所谓的规范/弦二象性来定义的。（这些值得注意的对应说明了某些规范理论和弦理论在具有一个额外空间维度的弯曲时空中的精确等价。）尽管规范理论在物理学中发挥着绝对的核心作用，但我们目前的理论工具还远远不能驯服它们。对约束、手性对称破缺和质量间隙的存在等物理现象的数学上合理的解析描述是根本不可用的，规范/弦二象性产生的精确场论机制仍然难以捉摸。为了解决这些令人着迷的问题，我们需要控制强耦合状态下的规范理论，而标准的微扰技术在这方面是不够的。迫切需要新的概念方法和工具。

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.