Quantum Behaviour of the Flux Tube: A comparison between QFT predictions and lattice gauge theory simulations

We review some universal features of the colour flux tube of gauge theories in the confining phase predicted by the infrared conformal limit of the underlying string theory. In particular we discuss shape effects in Wilson loops and rederive in a general way the logarithmic growth of the mean square width of the flux tube as a function of the interquark separation. Recent data on three-dimensional Z_2 gauge theory, combined with high precision data on the interface physics of the 3D Ising model fit nicely to this behaviour over a range of more than two orders of magnitude