Lattice Gauge Theories and the Heisenberg Antiferromagnetic Chain

We study the strongly coupled 2-flavor lattice Schwinger model and the SU(2)-color QCD_2. The strong coupling limit, even with its inherent nonuniversality, makes accurate predictions of the spectrum of the continuum models and provides an intuitive picture of the gauge theory vacuum. The massive excitations of the gauge model are computable in terms of spin-spin correlators of the quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain.