Wilson/Polyakov loops in Weinberg's QFT books

+ 5 like - 0 dislike
336 views

I wanted to know if the discussion on Wilson loops and Polyakov loops (and their relationship to confinement and asymptotic freedom) is present in the 3 volumes of Weinberg's QFT books but in some other name or heading.

At least I couldn't naively find these topics in that book.

I was hoping to see some detailed discussion about these non-local physical observables and also may be some model calculations and evaluations of them in some gauge theories. In Eduardo Fradkin's lecture notes there exists an evaluation of the Wilson loop in free Maxwell's theory and that too in a certain limit of large time and large separation and thats the only example of such a calculation that I have seen.

{Aside: I would be grateful if people can also point to other pedagogic/classic/path-breaking papers/references in this topic of Wilson loops. To start off these are four papers that I came across while searching along this direction - arXiv:hep-th/0003055, arXiv:hep-th/9911088, arXiv:hep-ph/0905.2317, arXiv:hep-th/9803002}

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
retagged Apr 19, 2014

+ 8 like - 0 dislike

The original papers by Geraldus 't Hooft himself are quite readable.

Whenever I open these papers, I'm always awestruck.

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
answered Dec 28, 2011 by (1,395 points)
Thanks a lot for the references! You have any insights about whether Weinberg has somehow garbed this topic of Wilson/Polyakov loops in some other form/terminology? It would be weird if this classic topic in gauge theory doesn't feature in the classic book on QFT!

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
I don't know if it's in it or not (look for "area law" or "confinement" in it). Note that you and I may think this topic as classic, but I guess it can be too modern a topic for him. Anyway, just stop regarding his book as sacred.

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
+ 3 like - 0 dislike

The lecture 7 and 10 by Witten in the following book contain a good review on this issue.

Quantum fields and strings: a course for mathematicians, Volume 2

This post has been migrated from (A51.SE)
answered Jan 1, 2012 by (345 points)

 Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead. To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL. Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post. This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button. Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview Your name to display (optional): Email me at this address if my answer is selected or commented on: Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications. Anti-spam verification: If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:$\varnothing\hbar$ysicsOverflowThen drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds). To avoid this verification in future, please log in or register.