QCD string formation and the Casimir energy

Three distinct scales are identified in the excitation spectrum of the gluon field around a static quark-antiquark pair as the color source separation R is varied. The spectrum, with string-like excitations on the largest length scales of 2–3 fm, provides clues in its rich fine structure for developing an effective bosonic string description. New results are reported from the three–dimensional Z(2) and SU(2) gauge models, providing further insight into the mechanism of bosonic string formation. The precocious onset of string–like behavior in the Casimir energy of the static quark-antiquark ground state is observed below R=1 fm where most of the string eigenmodes do not exist and the few stable excitations above the ground state are displaced. We find no firm theoretical foundation for the widely held view of discovering string formation from high precision ground state properties below the 1 fm scale.