Spectrum of the QCD flux tube in 3d SU(2) lattice gauge theory

Abstract

Evidence from the lattice suggests that formation of a flux tube between a $q\bar{q}$ pair in the QCD vacuum leads to quark confinement. For large separations between the quarks, it is conjectured that the flux tube has a behaviour similar to an oscillating bosonic string, supported by lattice data for the groundstate $q\bar{q}$ potential. We measure the excited states of the flux tube in 3d SU(2) gauge theory with three different couplings inside the scaling region. We compare our results to predictions of effective string theories.

Comments: 7 pages, 6 figures; v2 : References added for chapter II; v3: A new subsection discussing finite volume effects has been included. Revised version to match published version