Rigorous solution of strongly coupled \(SO(N)\) lattice gauge theory in the large \(N\) limit (Q1733817)

The author presents a very clear panoramic view of the quantum gauge theories, also called quantum Yang-Mills theories, which form the basic building blocks of the Standard Model of quantum mechanics. In an effort to gain a better theoretical understanding of quantum gauge theories, Wilson introduced a discretized version of these theories in 1974. These have since come to be known as `lattice gauge theories' or `lattice Yang-Mills theories'. Lattice gauge theories are mathematically well-defined objects. However, proving theorems about them has turned out to be quite challenging. On the other hand, even dealing with lattice gauge theories by themselves, without taking scaling limits, has not been easy. Wilson's original goal was to study certain quantities that are now known as `Wilson loop expectations'. These are the basic objects of interest in lattice gauge theories. A `solution' of a lattice gauge theory would refer to a formula for Wilson loop expectations. In this context, it is important to remark that no lattice gauge theory in any dimension higher than two has been rigorously solved in the above sense. A promising approach to solving lattice gauge theories was proposed by 't Hooft Who suggested an approximate computation of the partition function of lattice gauge theories in a certain kind of limit. Now this approach is well-grounded. On the other hand the lattice gauge theories have a parameter called the coupling strength. When the coupling strength is large, the system is said to be at strong coupling. Otherwise, it is in the weak coupling regime. The method analysed in this paper is somewhat easier to implement for \(\mathrm{SO}(N)\) than \(\mathrm{SU}(N)\) or \(\mathrm{U}(N)\), and that is why \(\mathrm{SO}(N)\) has been chosen as the first. In this context, the formula obtained in this manuscript (Theorem 3.1) is the first rigorously proved verification of any kind of gauge-string duality in any dimension higher than two, except for some exactly solvable models like three dimensional Chern-Simons gauge theory. On the other hand, the main result of the paper is the theorem that gives a duality between expected values of Wilson loop variables in \(\mathrm{SO}(N)\) lattice gauge theory and certain sums over trajectories in the associated discrete string theory. There are many open problems in the mathematics of lattice gauge theories. In this context, at the end of the paper, the author presents a tentative list of eight open problems that are most closely related to this paper.