{
  "abstract": "We investigate the description of quark confinement in terms of confining strings or flux tubes. We show that compact QED with a topological $θ$-term, in the dyon condensation phase, is described by a {\\it massive} two-form field $B_{μν}$ that gives rise to a string theory with an IR Brazovskii-Lifshitz fixed point at strong coupling, reached along a double-scaling renormalization trajectory on which the cutoff can be removed. This corresponds to a UV-complete quantum string in (3+1) dimensions, representing the dual of asymptotic freedom in the UV. Contrary to critical strings, which correspond to trivial Gaussian fixed points, this string is stabilized by a finite thickness, determined by the mass of the $B_{μν}$ field, instead of living in a higher-dimensional space. Interestingly, it contains a world-sheet excitation, in addition to the Nambu-Goto phonons, whose nature depends on the sign of the string stiffness: for the negative stiffness favoured by lattice data it appears as a broad, overdamped mode rather than a sharp resonance, consistent with the broad phase shift seen in lattice $SU(N)$ scattering data. On the other hand, we determine the confining potential and show that it reproduces a generalized Arvis potential $V(L)= aL\\sqrt{1-c/L^2}$ with running parameters $a(L), c(L)$. With this, we compute the mass difference ratios for the heaviest quarkonium and find 2.5\\% agreement with experiment already at the infrared fixed point, from a two-parameter fit of both the reduced quark mass and a boundary-condition parameter, to this fixed functional form. We also compute the intercept of Regge trajectories and find that the thickness of Brazovskii-Lifshitz strings tends to increase it from the Nambu-Goto value $α_0= 1/12$. Overall, our findings strongly support Polyakov's longstanding conjecture on universality of confining gauge theories in the IR.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2605.13791",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "M. C. Diamantini"
    },
    {
      "name": "F. Quevedo"
    },
    {
      "name": "C. A. Trugenberger"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Zapata"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/55szvpn1v79hh.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2605.13791",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "55szvpn1v79hh",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13791",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-lat"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7161156592",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.13791",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/55szvpn1v79hh.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
      "native_id": "2605.13791",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13791"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-lat",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Universal Confining Strings: From Compact QED to the Hadron Spectrum",
  "title_text": "Universal Confining Strings: From Compact QED to the Hadron Spectrum",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/55szvpn1v79hh",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}