The closed string spectrum of SU(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions

We use lattice techniques to study the closed-string spectrum of SU (N) gauge theories in 2 + 1 dimensions. We calculate the energies of the lowest lying ∼30 states for strings with lengths between l ∼ 0.45 fm and l ∼ 3 fm, and compare to different theoretical predictions. We obtain unambiguous evidence that the closed-strings are in the universality class of the Nambu-Goto free bosonic string. Moreover, we clearly see that our data can be described by a covariant string theory with a small/moderate correction down to very short distance scales, and possibly on all distance scales at large-N. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved