English

Wilson loops in SYM $N=4$ do not parametrize an orientable space

Mathematical Physics 2018-07-30 v2 math.MP

Abstract

In this paper we explore the geometric space parametrized by (tree level) Wilson loops in SYM N=4N=4. We show that, this space can be seen as a vector bundle over a totally non-negative subspace of the Grassmannian, Wk,cn\mathcal{W}_{k,cn}. Furthermore, we explicitly show that this bundle is non-orientable in the majority of the cases, and conjecture that it is non-orientable in the remaining situation. Using the combinatorics of the Deodhar decomposition of the Grassmannian, we identify subspaces Σ(W)Wk,n\Sigma(W) \subset \mathcal{W}_{k,n} for which the restricted bundle lies outside the positive Grassmannian. Finally, while probing the combinatorics of the Deodhar decomposition, we give a diagrammatic algorithm for reading equations determining each Deodhar component as a semialgebraic set.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.05397,
  title  = {Wilson loops in SYM $N=4$ do not parametrize an orientable space},
  author = {Susama Agarwala and Cameron Marcott},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.05397},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:01:24.682Z