Planar limit of orientifold field theories and emergent center symmetry

Journal Article · Fri Feb 15 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.77.045012· OSTI ID:21039176

Armoni, Adi ^[1]; Shifman, Mikhail ^[2]; Uensal, Mithat ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP (United Kingdom)
2. William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (United States)
3. SLAC, Stanford University, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States)

We consider orientifold field theories [i.e., SU(N) Yang-Mills theories with fermions in the two-index symmetric or antisymmetric representations] on R{sub 3}xS{sub 1} where the compact dimension can be either temporal or spatial. These theories are planar equivalent to supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The latter has Z{sub N} center symmetry. The famous Polyakov criterion establishing confinement-deconfinement phase transition as that from Z{sub N} symmetric to Z{sub N} broken phase applies. At the Lagrangian level the orientifold theories have at most a Z{sub 2} center. We discuss how the full Z{sub N} center symmetry dynamically emerges in the orientifold theories in the limit N{yields}{infinity}. In the confining phase the manifestation of this enhancement is the existence of stable k strings in the large-N limit of the orientifold theories. These strings are identical to those of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. We argue that critical temperatures (and other features) of the confinement-deconfinement phase transition are the same in the orientifold daughters and their supersymmetric parent up to 1/N corrections. We also discuss the Abelian and non-Abelian confining regimes of four-dimensional QCD-like theories.

• OSTI ID: 21039176
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 77; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CORRECTIONS
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
FERMIONS
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
INDEXES
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PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
SU GROUPS
SUPERSYMMETRY
YANG-MILLS THEORY