Wilson loop in AdS$_3 \times S^3 \times T^4$ from quantum M2 brane
Abstract
Type IIB string theory on AdS with RR flux as the near-horizon limit of the D1-D5 solution is expected to be dual to a (4,4) supersymmetric 2d CFT parametrized by the integers and other moduli. It is related by T-duality to type IIA string theory in the near-horizon limit of the D2-D4 solution which admits an uplift to the 11d AdS background which is the near-horizon limit of the M2-M5 solution. We point out that this relation allows one to use the quantum M2-brane description to probe ``non-planar'' corrections in the dual 2d CFT, in close analogy with the ABJM theory case (described by M-theory on AdS). We consider an analog of a supersymmetric Wilson loop (line defect) expectation value represented by type IIA string partition function expanded around AdSAdS minimal surface. Its M-theory analog is the M2 brane partition function expanded near AdS. We compute the 1-loop contribution to the M2 brane partition function and find that in contrast to the ABJM case in arXiv:2303.15207 (where contains an infinite series of higher genera string corrections, ), here it is given solely by the leading string-theory contribution where plays a role analogous to . We also discuss a generalization to the mixed flux case which is straightforward from the 11d perspective.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.25590,
title = {Wilson loop in AdS$_3 \times S^3 \times T^4$ from quantum M2 brane},
author = {Arkady A. Tseytlin and Zihan Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.25590},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
v3: minor comments, appendix D expanded