2D Principal Chiral Field at Large N as a Possible Solvable 2D String Theory

I describe how integrable quantum field theories in 2 spacetime dimensions are characterized by infinite dimensional quantum group symmetries, namely the q-deformations of affine Lie algebras, and their Yangian limit. These symmetries can provide a new non-perturbative formulation of the theories.

We present detailed solutions to 81 of the 202 problems in J. Polchinski's two-volume textbook "String Theory".

We discuss the equivalence between a string theory and the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with SU(N) gauge group for finite N. We find a sector which can be interpreted as a sum of covering maps from closed string world-sheets to the target space, whose covering number is less than N. This gives an asymptotic expansion of 1/N whose large N limit becomes the chiral sector defined by D.Gross and W.Taylor. We also discuss that the residual part of the partition function provi...

We obtain a bilocal classical field theory as the large $N$ limit of the chiral Gross--Neveu (or non--abelian Thirring) model. Exact classical solutions that describe topological solitons are obtained. It is shown that their mass spectrum agrees with the large $N$ limit of the spectrum of the chiral Gross--Neveu model.

Minor corrections made and several references changed.

We study the non-singlet sectors of Matrix Quantum Mechanics in application to two-dimensional string theory. We use the chiral formalism, which operates directly with incoming and outgoing asymptotic states, related by a scattering operator. We give a prescription for evaluating the tree level non-singlet scattering amplitudes given the profile of the Fermi sea. In the case of a stationary Fermi sea our general formula for the adjoint representation reproduces Maldacena's sc...

We argue that the relevant higher gauge group for the non-abelian generalization of the self-dual string equation is the string 2-group. We then derive the corresponding equations of motion and discuss their properties. The underlying geometric picture is a string structure, i.e. a categorified principal bundle with connection whose structure 2-group is the string 2-group. We readily write down the explicit elementary solution to our equations, which is the categorified analo...

We describe a novel double scaling limit of large N Yang-Mills theory on a two-dimensional torus and its relation to the geometry of the principal moduli spaces of holomorphic differentials.

We propose a duality between the large-N gauged harmonic oscillator and a novel string theory in two dimensions.

Analytical and numerical methods are applied to principal chiral models on a two-dimensional lattice and their predictions are tested and compared. New techniques for the strong coupling expansion of SU(N) models are developed and applied to the evaluation of the two-point correlation function. The momentum-space lattice propagator is constructed with precision O(\beta^{10}) and an evaluation of the correlation length is obtained for several different definitions. Three-loop ...