English

A universal W-algebra for N=4 super Yang-Mills

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-06-19 v1

Abstract

Using bootstrap methods, we provide evidence for the existence of a non-linear W-algebra, denoted Ws,sW_\infty^\text{s,s}, which contains the small N= 4 super Virasoro algebra and features an infinite tower of additional generators, organized in short supersymmetry multiplets. The algebra Ws,sW_\infty^\text{s,s} has one free parameter, its central charge c. We claim that the simple quotient of Ws,sW_\infty^\text{s,s} for c= -3(N^2-1) is isomorphic to the vertex operator algebra associated to 4d N=4 su(N)\mathfrak{su}(N) super Yang-Mills theory. We define a filtration in Ws,sW_\infty^\text{s,s} and provide evidence that it reproduces the R-filtration, which is crucial to extract 4d SCFT data from the vertex operator algebra. Finally, we present explicit formulae for all the (anti)commutators of the wedge algebra of Ws,s W_\infty^\text{s,s}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.15678,
  title  = {A universal W-algebra for N=4 super Yang-Mills},
  author = {Federico Bonetti and Carlo Meneghelli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.15678},
  year   = {2025}
}