COMPACT 3-DIMENSIONAL QED WITH A THETA-TERM AND AXIONIC CONFINING STRINGS

We discuss three-dimensional compact QED with a theta term due to an a xionic field. The variational gauge-invariant functional is considered and it is shown that the ground-state energy is independent of theta in a leading approximation. The mass gap of the axionic field is found to be dependent upon theta, the mass gap of the photon field, and the scalar potential. The vacuum expectation of the Wilson loop is shown to;be independent of a in a leading approximation, to obey the area la w, and to lead to confinement. We also briefly discuss the properties of axionic confining strings.