Semiclassical strings on confining backgrounds

This paper discusses some results on semiclassical string configurations lying in the IR sector of supergravity backgrounds dual to confining gauge theories. On the gauge theory side, the string states we analyse correspond to Wilson loops, glueballs and KK-hadrons. The 1-loop correction to the classical energy is never subleading, but can be viewed as a coupling dependent rescaling of the dimensionful parameters of the theory. Talk given at the RTN Workshop on the Quantum Structure of Spacetime and the Geometric Nature of Fundamental Interactions, Kolymbari, Crete, Greece, 5-10 Sep 2004. e-mail: [email protected]