Quantum vortex strings: A review

The quantum worldsheet dynamics of vortex strings contains information about the 4d non-Abelian gauge theory in which the string lives. Here I tell this story, The string worldsheet theory is typically some variant of the CPN-1 sigma-model, describing the orientation of the string in a U(N) gauge group. Qualitative parallels between 2d sigma-models and 4d non-Abelian gauge theories have been known since the 1970s. The vortex string provides a quantitative link between the two. In 4d theories with N = 2 supersymmetry, the exact BPS spectrum of the worldsheet coincides with the bulk spectrum in 4d. Moreover, by tuning parameters, the CPN-1 sigma-model can be coaxed to flow to an interacting conformal fixed point which is related to the 4d Argyres-Douglas fixed point. For theories with N = 1 supersymmetry, the worldsheet theory suffers dynamical supersymmetry breaking and, more interestingly, supersymmetry restoration, in a way which captures the physics of Seiberg's quantum deformed moduli space. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.