English

Precision calculation of 1/4-BPS Wilson loops in AdS$_5\times S^5$

High Energy Physics - Theory 2016-03-23 v2

Abstract

We study the strong coupling behaviour of 1/41/4-BPS circular Wilson loops (a family of "latitudes") in N=4{\cal N}=4 Super Yang-Mills theory, computing the one-loop corrections to the relevant classical string solutions in AdS5×_5\timesS5^5. Supersymmetric localization provides an exact result that, in the large 't Hooft coupling limit, should be reproduced by the sigma-model approach. To avoid ambiguities due to the absolute normalization of the string partition function, we compare the ratioratio between the generic latitude and the maximal 1/2-BPS circle: Any measure-related ambiguity should simply cancel in this way. We use Gel'fand-Yaglom method to calculate the relevant functional determinants, that present some complications with respect to the standard circular case. After a careful numerical evaluation of our final expression we still find disagreement with the localization answer: The difference is encoded into a precise "remainder function". We comment on the possible origin and resolution of this discordance.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1512.00841,
  title  = {Precision calculation of 1/4-BPS Wilson loops in AdS$_5\times S^5$},
  author = {V. Forini and V. Giangreco M. Puletti and L. Griguolo and D. Seminara and E. Vescovi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.00841},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

References added, comments in introduction and conclusions added, it matches published version