SU(N) Yang-Mills on a circle, loop variables, Mandelstam identities and quantization ambiguities

Abstract

We consider $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills on a circle (cylindrical space-time) and quantize the eigenvalues of the holonomy. In this way the Mandelstam identities associated with the holonomy are trivially solved. Furthermore we indicate that there are exactly two physically inequivalent representations of the algebra of gauge-invariant operators, resulting in different spectra.