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. We show that string interaction effects become more relevant as the temperature is increased towards the deconfinement one, and are well modeled by a Nambu-Goto string action. 
M. Caselle, M. Hasenbusch, M. Panero and P. Provero