String effects in Polyakov loop correlators

We compare the predictions of the effective string description of confinement in finite temperature gauge theories to high precision Monte Carlo data for the three-dimensional Z_2 gauge theory. First we review the predictions of the free bosonic string model and their asymptotic behavior in the various regimes of physical interest. Then we show that very good agreement with the Monte Carlo data is obtained, for temperatures not too close to the deconfinement one (typically T<T_c/3). For higher temperatures, higher order effects are not negligible: we show that they are accurately modeled by assuming a Nambu-Goto string action and computing its partition function at next-to-leading order.