S-duality and noncommutative gauge theory

It is conjectured that strongly coupled, spatially noncommutative N = 4 Yan g-Mills theory has a dual description as a weakly coupled open string theor y in a near critical electric field, and that this dual theory is fully dec oupled from closed strings. Evidence for this conjecture is given by the ab sence of physical closed string poles in the non-planar one-loop open strin g diagram. The open string theory can be viewed as living in a geometry in which space and time coordinates do not commute.