Equations of motion for the light-like QCD Wilson loops are studied in the generalized loop space (GLS) setting. To this end, the classically conformal-invariant non-local variations of the cusped Wilson exponentials lying (partially) on the light-cone are formulated in terms of the Fréchet derivative. The rapidity and renormalization-group behaviour of the gauge-invariant quantum correlation functions (in particular, the three-dimensional parton densities) are demonstrated to be connected to certain geometrical properties of the Wilson loops defined in the GLS.
We calculate the expectation value of one circular Wilson loop and the correlator of two concentric circular Wilson loops in AdS/QCD using the modified AdS_5-metric given in Ref.[1]. The confinement properties of this metric in AdS/QCD are analyzed and compared with QCD and Nambu-Goto theory in four dimensions.
We derive the two loop expressions for polygonal Wilson loops by starting from the one loop expressions and applying an operator product expansion. We do this for polygonal Wilson loops in R^{1,1} and find a result in agreement with previous computations. We also discuss the spectrum of excitations around flux tube that connects two null Wilson lines.
In the planar N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, the conformal symmetry constrains multi-loop n-edged Wilson loops to be basically given in terms of the one-loop n-edged Wilson loop, augmented, for n greater than 6, by a function of conformally invariant cross ratios. We identify a class of kinematics for which the Wilson loop exhibits exact Regge factorisation and which leave invariant the analytic form of the multi-loop n-edged Wilson loop. In those kinematics, the analytic result for the Wilson loop is the same as in general kinematics, although the computation is remarkably simplified w…
We use AdS/QCD to analyze the quark and gluon scalar and pseudo-scalar condensates around static color sources described by a circular Wilson loop. We also derive the static dipole-dipole interactions between rectangular Wilson loops in AdS/QCD and discuss their relevance for static string interactions in QCD at strong coupling.
We introduce the notion of Multichannel Conformal Blocks relevant for the Operator Product Expansion for Null Polygon Wilson loops with more than six edges. As an application of these, we decompose the one loop heptagon Wilson loop and predict the value of its two loop OPE discontinuities. At the functional level, the OPE discontinuities are roughly half of the full result. Using symbols they suffice to predict the full two loop result. We also present several new predictions for the heptagon result at any loop order.
We consider the question of gauge invariance of the Wilson loop in the light of a new treatment of axial gauge propagator proposed recently based on a finite field-dependent BRS (FFBRS) transformation. We remark that as under the FFBRS transformation the vacuum expectation value of a gauge invariant observable remains unchanged, our prescription automatically satisfies the Wilson loop criterion. Further, we give an argument for {\it direct} verification of the invariance of Wilson loop to O(g^4) using the earlier work by Cheng and Tsai. We also note that our prescription preserves the thermal …
We introduce dressed Wilson loops as a novel confinement observable. It consists of closed planar loops of arbitrary geometry but fixed area, and its expectation values decay with the latter. The construction of dressed Wilson loops is based on chiral condensates in response to magnetic and electric fields, thus linking different physical concepts. We present results for generalized condensates and dressed Wilson loops on dynamical lattice configurations and confirm the agreement with conventional Wilson loops in the limit of large probe mass. We comment on the renormalization of dressed Wilso…
We address a connection between the energy evolution of the polygonal light-like Wilson exponentials and the geometry of the loop space with the gauge invariant Wilson loops of a variety of shapes being the fundamental degrees of freedom. The renormalization properties and the differential area evolution of these Wilson polygons are studied by making use of the universal Schwinger quantum dynamical approach. We discuss the appropriateness of the dynamical differential equations in the loop space to the study of the energy evolution of the collinear and transverse-momentum dependent parton dist…
In the planar N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at weak coupling, we perform the first analytic computation of a two-loop eight-edged Wilson loop embedded into the boundary of AdS3. Its remainder function is given as a function of uniform transcendental weight four in terms of a constant plus a product of four logarithms. We compare to the strong-coupling result, and test a conjecture on the universality of the remainder function proposed in the literature.
We obtain a compact expression for the octagon MHV amplitude / Wilson loop at 3 loops in planar N=4 SYM and in special 2d kinematics in terms of 7 unfixed coefficients. We do this by making use of the cyclic and parity symmetry of the amplitude/Wilson loop and its behaviour in the soft/collinear limits as well as in the leading term in the expansion away from this limit. We also make a natural and quite general assumption about the functional form of the result, namely that it should consist of weight 6 polylogarithms whose symbol consists of basic cross-ratios only (and not functions thereof)…
We introduce dressed Wilson loops as a novel confinement observable. It consists of closed planar loops of arbitrary geometry but fixed area and its expectation values decay with the latter. The construction of dressed Wilson loops is based on chiral condensates in response to magnetic (and electric) fields, thus linking different physical concepts. We present results for generalized condensates and dressed Wilson loops on dynamical lattice configurations and confirm the agreement with conventional Wilson loops in the limit of large probe mass. We comment on the renormalization of dressed Wils…
We generalize modern ideas about the duality between Wilson loops and scattering amplitudes in ${\cal N}$=4 SYM to large-N (or quenched) QCD. We show that the area-law behavior of asymptotically large Wilson loops is dual to the Regge-Veneziano behavior of scattering amplitudes at high energies and fixed momentum transfer, when quark mass is small and/or the number of particles is large. We elaborate on this duality for string theory in a flat space, identifying the asymptotes of the disk amplitude and the Wilson loop of large-N QCD.
We compute for the first time the two-loop corrections to arbitrary n-gon lightlike Wilson loops in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, using efficient numerical methods. The calculation is motivated by the remarkable agreement between the finite part of planar six-point MHV amplitudes and hexagon Wilson loops which has been observed at two loops. At n=6 we confirm that the ABDK/BDS ansatz must be corrected by adding a remainder function, which depends only on conformally invariant ratios of kinematic variables. We numerically compute remainder functions for n=7,8 and verify dual conformal i…
We start with an n-point correlation function in a conformal gauge theory. We show that a special limit produces a polygonal Wilson loop with $n$ sides. The limit takes the $n$ points towards the vertices of a null polygonal Wilson loop such that successive distances $x^2_{i,i+1} \to 0$. This produces a fast moving particle that generates a "frame" for the Wilson loop. We explain in detail how the limit is approached, including some subtle effects from the propagation of a fast moving particle in the full interacting theory. We perform perturbative checks by doing explicit computations in N=4 …
An effective action is proposed to compute the expectation value of Wilson loops in $(S)U(N)$ gauge theories. The action consists of fermions localized on the loop and an Abelian gauge field that fixes the representation. The discussion is limited to weak coupling and Wilson loops in the fundamental representation extended along a smooth curve, but there are no restrictions on the matter content as long as the theory has a UV fixed point or it is conformal. For a circular Wilson loop it is found that the expectation value coincides at leading order with the exact result of the $1/2$ BPS Wilson…
In finite-temperature field theory, the cyclic Wilson loop is defined as a rectangular Wilson loop spanning the whole compactified time direction. In a generic non-abelian gauge theory, we calculate the perturbative expansion of the cyclic Wilson loop up to order g^4. At this order and after charge renormalization, the cyclic Wilson loop is known to be ultraviolet divergent. We show that the divergence is not associated with cusps in the contour but is instead due to the contour intersecting itself because of the periodic boundary conditions. One consequence of this is that the cyclic Wilson l…
We discuss the analyticity properties of the Wilson--loop correlation functions relevant to the problem of soft high-energy scattering, directly at the level of the functional integral, in a genuinely nonperturbative way.
Inequalities are derived for Wilson loops generalizing the well-known Bachas inequality for rectangular contours. The inequalities are compatible with the area law for large contours. The Polyakov cusp anomalous dimension of Wilson lines (playing an important role in QCD applications to hard processes) has a convex angular dependence. This convexity is crucial for the consistency of the inequalities with renormalization. Some parallel properties can be found in the string theory. The Kac-Ray cusp term from the "shape of a drum" problem has the same angular convexity property and plays the role…
This work is about pure Yang-Mills theory in four Euclidean dimensions with gauge group SU(N). We study rectangular smeared Wilson loops on the lattice at large N and relatively close to the large-N transition point in their eigenvalue density. We show that the string tension can be extracted from these loops but their dependence on shape differs from the asymptotic prediction of effective string theory.
The Makeenko-Migdal loop equation is non-linear and first order in the area derivative, but we show that for simple loops in QCD$_2$ it is possible to reformulate this equation as a linear equation with second order derivatives. This equation is a bound state Schrödinger equation with a three dimensional Coulomb potential. Thus, loop dynamics leads to a surprising new picture of confinement, where this phenomenon is due to a (bound state) localization in loop space, with the Wilson loops decaying exponentially outside a characteristic radius.
A phenomenological analysis of the distribution of Wilson loops in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory is presented in which Wilson loop distributions are described as the result of a diffusion process on the group manifold. It is shown that, in the absence of forces, diffusion implies Casimir scaling and, conversely, exact Casimir scaling implies free diffusion. Screening processes occur if diffusion takes place in a potential. The crucial distinction between screening of fundamental and adjoint loops is formulated as a symmetry property related to the center symmetry of the underlying gauge theory. The …
We study the renormalization of the Wilson loop with a path corresponding to the Drell-Yan lepton pair production in two-loop approximation of perturbation theory. We establish the renormalization group equation in next-to-leading order and find a process specific anomalous dimension Gamma_DY in the corresponding approximation.
In a gauge theory, the gauge invariant Hilbert space is unchanged by the coupling to arbitrary local operators. In the presence of Wilson loops, though, the physical Hilbert space must be enlarged by adding test electric charges along the loop. I discuss how at nonzero temperature Polyakov loops are naturally related to the propagator of a test charge. 't Hooft loops represent the propagation of a test magnetic charge, and so do not alter the physical Hilbert space.
With the known two loop renormalisation of the magnetic coupling, the 4D results of the spatial Wilson loop are compared to the prediction from the magnetostatic sector.
The connected contribution to the kernel of the evolution equation for the 3-quark Wilson loop operator was derived within Balitsky high energy operator expansion. Its C-odd part was linearized and transferred to the momentum space.
Complete two-loop calculation of a dimensionally regularized Wilson loop with light-like segments is performed in the light-like axial gauge with the Mandelstam-Leibbrandt prescription for the gluon propagator. We find an expression which {\it exactly} coincides with the one previously obtained for the same Wilson loop in covariant Feynman gauge. The renormalization of Wilson loop is performed in the $\MS-$scheme using a general procedure tailored to the light-like axial gauge. We find that the renormalized Wilson loop obeys a renormalization group equation with the same anomalous dimensions a…
We review the present knowledge on the heavy quark interaction. The framework is the NRQCD effective theory and the interaction is expressed in terms of Wilson loop chromoelectric and chromomagnetic insertions.
We discuss the relation between partonic distributions near the phase space boundary and Wilson loop expectation values calculated along paths partially lying on the light-cone. Due to additional light-cone singularities, multiplicative renormalizability for these expectation values is lost. Nevertheless we establish the renormalization group equation for the light like Wilson loops and show that it is equivalent to the evolution equation for the physical distributions. By performing a two-loop calculation we verify these properties and show that the universal form of the splitting function fo…
The bound state problem for a gauge invariant quark-antiquark system is considered in the instantaneous rest frame. Focus here is on the long range non-perturbative interaction. A two-time Green's function is constructed for Salpeter amplitudes. The corresponding Schrödinger equation is found to be in the Salpeter form with a Wilson-loop term as the instantaneous kernel.
We calculate Wilson loops of various sizes up to 20 loops in SU(3) pure lattice gauge theory at different lattice sizes for Wilson gauge action using the technique of numerical stochastic perturbation theory. This allows us to investigate the perturbative series for various Wilson loops at high loop orders. We observe differences in the behavior of those series as function of the loop order. Up to $n=20$ we do not find evidence for the factorial growth of the expansion coefficients often assumed to characterize an asymptotic series. Based on the actually observed behavior we sum the series in …
We consider computations of Wilson loop expectations to leading order at large $β$ in the case where a non-abelian gauge field interacts with a Higgs boson. By identifying the main order contributions from minimal vortices, we can express the Wilson loop expectations via an explicit Poisson random variable. This paper treats multiple cases of interests, including the Higgs boson at low and high disorder, and finds efficient polymer expansion like computations for each of these regimes.
