Flux-tubes in confining gauge theories with gravitational dual

Abstract

The emergence of flux-tubes as the distance is increased between a quark and an antiquark is explored in a three-dimensional confining gauge theory using the gauge/gravity duality. We delineate the shape of the flux-tube corresponding to the classical open string in the bulk and further explore the fluctuation in its thickness induced by the fluctuation of the open string along the radial direction in the bulk. The relationship between the intrinsic shape of a flux-tube and its effect on the heavy quark potential is also discussed.

Comments: 24 pages, 15 figures, 1 table. V2: Removed review sections from the appendix, added discussion on the relationship between the intrinsic shape of the flux-tube and the possible existence of spin-spin dependent potential, added references, python notebooks now included as ancillary files