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arXiv · 2604.11896

Strong coupling dynamics of defect RG flows in ABJM

Marco S. Bianchi·Luigi Castiglioni·Silvia Penati·Marcia Tenser·Diego Trancanelli
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Abstract

Wilson loop operators in ABJM theory provide a rich arena for studying defect conformal field theories (dCFTs) and the renormalization group (RG) flows connecting them. While these are well understood at weak coupling, a complete strong-coupling picture remains an open problem. In this paper, we present a systematic strong-coupling analysis of the fixed points and operator spectrum underlying defect RG flows in ABJM, via holography. By examining fluctuations of fundamental strings in the AdS$_4 \times \mathbb{CP}^3$ background around classical AdS$_2$ solutions, we map worldsheet excitations to the operators in the dual dCFT which are responsible for the flows and determine their scaling dimensions, including subleading corrections from one-loop worldsheet effects. We show how different boundary conditions on string coordinates correspond to distinct operators and provide a geometric realization of the RG flows through interpolating boundary conditions. We apply this framework to fermionic 1/2 BPS, bosonic 1/6 BPS, and non-supersymmetric Wilson loops, establishing a coherent strong-coupling picture in which the 1/2 BPS loop is IR stable, the 1/6 BPS loop acts as a saddle point, and the non-supersymmetric configuration emerges as a natural UV fixed point. We also advance a proposal for the holographic dual of a second non-supersymmetric loop, in terms of averaging over Dirichlet boundary conditions.

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Marco S. Bianchi, Luigi Castiglioni, Silvia Penati, Marcia Tenser, Diego Trancanelli. 2026-04-13. Strong coupling dynamics of defect RG flows in ABJM. https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ae91a2

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