English

Higher Rank Wilson Loops in N = 2* Super-Yang-Mills Theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2015-02-16 v2

Abstract

The N=2* Super-Yang-Mills theory (SYM*) undergoes an infinite sequence of large-N quantum phase transitions. We compute expectation values of Wilson loops in k-symmetric and antisymmetric representations of the SU(N) gauge group in this theory and show that the same phenomenon that causes the phase transitions at finite coupling leads to a non-analytic dependence of Wilson loops on k/N when the coupling is strictly infinite, thus making the higher-representation Wilson loops ideal holographic probes of the non-trivial phase structure of SYM*.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1502.01942,
  title  = {Higher Rank Wilson Loops in N = 2* Super-Yang-Mills Theory},
  author = {Xinyi Chen-Lin and Konstantin Zarembo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.01942},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

33 pages, 6 figures. v2: a new reference added