We review a number of old and new concepts in quantum gauge theories, some of which are well-established but not widely appreciated, some are most recent, that may have analogs in gauge formulations of quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity, and their topological versions, and may be of general interest. Such concepts involve noncommutative gauge theories and their relation to the large-N limit, loop equations and the change to the anti-selfdual (ASD) variables also known as Nicolai map, topological field theory (TFT) and its relation to localization and Morse-Smale-Floer homology, with an emphasis both on the mathematical aspects and the physical meaning. These concepts, assembled in a new way, enter a line of attack to the problem of the mass gap in large-N SU(N) Yang-Mills (YM), that is reviewed as well. Algebraic considerations furnish a measure of the mathematical complexity of a complete solution of large-N SU(N) YM: In the large-N limit of pure SU(N) YM the ambient algebra of Wilson loops is known to be a type H-1 nonhyperfinite factor. Nevertheless, for the mass gap problem at the leading 1/N order, only the subalgebra of local gauge-invariant single-trace operators matters. The connected two-point correlators in this subalgebra must be an infinite sum of propagators of free massive fields, since the interaction is subleading in N-1, a vast simplification. It is an open problem, determined by the growth of the degeneracy of the spectrum, whether the aforementioned local subalgebra is in fact hyperfinite. Moreover, the sum of free propagators that occurs in the two-point correlators in the aforementioned local subalgebra must be asymptotic for large momentum to the result implied by the asymptotic freedom and the renormalization group: This fundamental constraint fixes asymptotically the residues of the poles of the propagators in terms of the mass spectrum and of the anomalous dimensions of the local operators. For the mass gap problem, in the search of a hyperfinite subalgebra containing the scalar sector of large-N YM, a major role is played by the existence of a TFT underlying the large-N limit of YM, with twisted boundary conditions on a torus or, which is the same by Morita duality, on a noncommutative torus. The TFT is trivial at the leading large-N order and localized on a set of critical points by means of a quantum version of Morse-Smale-Floer homology, that involves loop equations in the ASD variables. A hyperfinite sector arises by fluctuations around the trivial TFT, in which the joint spectrum of scalar and pseudoscalar glueballs is linear in the square of the masses m(k)(2) = k Lambda(2)(YM) with degeneracy k = 1, 2,..., and the two-point correlator satisfies the aforementioned fundamental constraint arising by the asymptotic freedom and the renormalization group.
