Chiral Composite Linear Dilaton as String Dual to Two-Dimensional Yang-Mills

Abstract: Two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory (2d YM) is arguably the simplest confining gauge theory and its large $N_c$ expansion has a structure of the genus expansion in string theory. Nevertheless various aspects of its worldsheet description have not been fully understood. In this paper, we elaborate on a bosonic string dual to large $N_c$ chiral 2d YM at finite 't Hooft coupling, proposed in our earlier work. The worldsheet theory consists of $β$-$γ$ system deformed by linear dilaton action built from a composite of $γ$. It can be seen as a noncritical version of nonrelativistic string theory introduced by Gomis and Ooguri. We provide a detailed analysis of the worldsheet operator product expansion and the computation of three- and four-point scattering amplitudes.