Adjoint 2D QCD and Pure 3D QCD: A Comparison of Spectra

We briefly review the 1+1-dimensional SU(N) gauge theory minimally coupled to an adjoint scalar, based upon a dimensional reduction of 2+1-dimensional pure gauge theory, which approximates the dynamics of the transversely polarized gluon. The lightest glueball states are investigated non-perturbatively using light-front quantisation in the large-N limit a la 't Hooft, and the physical meaning of the results elucidated. Comparison is made with recent lattice Monte Carlo data for 3-dimensional quenched QCD.