  We present detailed analytic calculations of finite-volume energy spectra,
mean field theory, as well as a systematic low-energy effective field theory
for the square lattice quantum dimer model. The analytic considerations explain
why a string connecting two external static charges in the confining columnar
phase fractionalizes into eight distinct strands with electric flux
$\frac{1}{4}$. An emergent approximate spontaneously broken $SO(2)$ symmetry
gives rise to a pseudo-Goldstone boson. Remarkably, this soft phonon-like
excitation, which is massless at the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point, exists far
beyond this point. The Goldstone physics is captured by a systematic low-energy
effective field theory. We determine its low-energy parameters by matching the
analytic effective field theory with exact diagonalization results and Monte
Carlo data. This confirms that the model exists in the columnar (and not in a
plaquette or mixed) phase all the way to the RK point.
