UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF 2-DIMENSIONAL YANG-MILLS THEORY AT LARGE-N

We show that the large N partition functions and Wilson loop observabl es of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theories admit a universal functional form irrespective of the gauge group. We demonstrate that U(N) QCD(2) undergoes a large N. third order phase transition on the projective p lane at an area coupling product of pi(2)/2. We use this as a lemma to provide a direct transcription for tile partition functions and phase portraits of Yang-Mills theory from the U(N) on RP(2) at large N to t he other classical Lie groups on S-2. We compute the expectation value of the Wilson loops in the fundamental representation for SO(N) and S p(N) on the two-sphere. Finally we compare the strong and weak couplin g limit of these expressions with those found elsewhere in the literat ure.