English

Quantum 't Hooft operators and S-duality in N=4 super Yang-Mills

High Energy Physics - Theory 2022-12-01 v2

Abstract

We provide a quantum path integral definition of an 't Hooft loop operator, which inserts a pointlike monopole in a four dimensional gauge theory. We explicitly compute the expectation value of the circular 't Hooft operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills with arbitrary gauge group G up to next to leading order in perturbation theory. We also compute in the strong coupling expansion the expectation value of the circular Wilson loop operators. The result of the computation of an 't Hooft loop operator in the weak coupling expansion exactly reproduces the strong coupling result of the conjectured dual Wilson loop operator under the action of S-duality. This paper demonstrates - for the first time - that correlation functions in N=4 super Yang-Mills admit the action of S-duality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0904.4486,
  title  = {Quantum 't Hooft operators and S-duality in N=4 super Yang-Mills},
  author = {Jaume Gomis and Takuya Okuda and Diego Trancanelli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0904.4486},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

38 pages; v2: references added, typos fixed

R2 v1 2026-06-21T12:56:05.065Z