Wilson loop. Regge trajectory, and hadron masses in a Yang-Mills theory from semiclassical strings

We compute the one-loop string corrections to the Wilson loop, glueball Regge trajectory and stringy hadron masses in the Witten model of nonsupersymmetric, large-$N$ Yang-Mills theory. The classical string configurations corresponding to the above field theory objects are, respectively: open straight strings, folded closed spinning strings, and strings orbiting in the internal part of the supergravity background. For the rectangular Wilson loop we show that besides the standard L\"uscher term, string corrections provide a rescaling of the field theory string tension. The one-loop corrections to the linear glueball Regge trajectories render them nonlinear with a positive intercept, as in the experimental soft Pomeron trajectory. Strings orbiting in the internal space predict a spectrum of hadroniclike states charged under global flavor symmetries which falls in the same universality class of other confining models.