One-loop one-point functions in gauge-gravity dualities with defects

Abstract

We initiate the calculation of loop corrections to correlation functions in 4D defect CFTs. More precisely, we consider N=4 SYM with a codimension-one defect separating two regions of space, x_3>0 and x_3<0, where the gauge group is SU(N) and SU(N-k), respectively. This set-up is made possible by some of the real scalar fields acquiring a non-vanishing and x_3-dependent vacuum expectation value for x_3>0. The holographic dual is the D3-D5 probe brane system where the D5 brane geometry is AdS_4 x S^2 and a background gauge field has k units of flux through the S^2. We diagonalise the mass matrix of the defect CFT making use of fuzzy-sphere coordinates and we handle the x_3-dependence of the mass terms in the 4D Minkowski space propagators by reformulating these as standard massive AdS_4 propagators. Furthermore, we show that only two Feynman diagrams contribute to the one-loop correction to the one-point function of any single-trace operator and we explicitly calculate this correction in the planar limit for the simplest chiral primary. The result of this calculation is compared to an earlier string-theory computation in a certain double-scaling limit, finding perfect agreement. Finally, we discuss how to generalise our calculation to any single-trace operator, to finite N and to other types of observables such as Wilson loops.