The exact Seiberg-Witten (SW) description of the light sector in the N = 2 SUSY 4d Yang-Mills theory [1] is reformulated in terms of integrable systems and appears to be a Gurevich-Pitaevsky (GP) [2] solution to the elliptic Whitham equations. We consider this as an implication that dynamical mechanism behind the SW solution is related to integrable systems on the moduli space of instantons. We emphasize the role of the Whitham theory as a possible substitute of the renormalization-group approach to the construction of low-energy effective actions.

We study anomalous dimensions of (super)conformal Wilson operators at weak and strong coupling making use of the integrability symmetry on both sides of the gauge/string correspondence and elucidate the origin of their single-logarithmic behavior for long operators/strings in the limit of large Lorentz spin. On the gauge theory side, we apply the method of the Baxter Q-operator to identify different scaling regimes in the anomalous dimensions in integrable sectors of (supersymmetric) Yang-Mills theory to one-loop order and determine the values of the Lorentz spin at which the logarithmic scaling sets in. We demonstrate that the conventional semiclassical approach based on the analysis of the distribution of Bethe roots breaks down in this domain. We work out an asymptotic expression for the anomalous dimensions which is valid throughout the entire region of variation of the Lorentz spin. On the string theory side, the logarithmic scaling occurs when two most distant points of the folded spinning string approach the boundary of the AdS space. In terms of the spectral curve for the classical string sigma model, the same configuration is described by an elliptic curve with two branching points approaching values determined by the square root of the 't Hooft coupling constant. As a result, the anomalous dimensions cease to obey the BMN scaling and scale logarithmically with the Lorentz spin.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figure

Renormalization group evolution of QCD composite light-cone operators, built from two and more quark and gluon fields, is responsible for the logarithmic scaling violations in diverse physical observables. We analyze spectra of anomalous dimensions of these operators at large conformal spins at weak and strong coupling with the emphasis on the emergence of a dual string picture. The multi-particle spectrum at weak coupling has a hidden symmetry due to integrability of the underlying dilatation operator which drives the evolution. In perturbative regime, we demonstrate the equivalence of the one-loop cusp anomaly to the disk partition function in two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory which admits a string representation. The strong coupling regime for anomalous dimensions is discussed within the two pictures addressed recently, -- minimal surfaces of open strings and rotating long closed strings in AdS background. In the latter case we find that the integrability implies the presence of extra degrees of freedom -- the string junctions. We demonstrate how the analysis of their equations of motion naturally agrees with the spectrum found at weak coupling.Comment: Latex, 59 pages, 6 figure

The second derivatives of prepotential with respect to Whitham time-variables in the Seiberg-Witten theory are expressed in terms of Riemann theta-functions. These formulas give a direct transcendental generalization of algebraic ones for the Kontsevich matrix model. In particular case they provide an explicit derivation of the renormalization group (RG) equation proposed recently in papers on the Donaldson theory.