The Maldacena Conjecture and Rehren Duality

Abstract

We analyse the implications of the fact that there are two claims for a dual to \N=4 superconformal SU(N) Yang-Mills theory (SCYM), the Maldacena conjecture and the theorem of Rehren. While the Maldacena dual is conjectured to be a non-perturbative string theory for large string coupling $g_s$ and small $N$, the Rehren dual is an ordinary quantum field theory on $AdS_5$ for all values of the parameters. We argue that as a result, if we accept the Maldacena conjecture, one of the following statements must be true: 1) SCYM does not satisfy the axioms of algebraic quantum field theory for finite $N$ because its observables do not obey the causal structure of conformal Minkowski space;. 2) String theory on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ is not a quantum theory of gravity in 10 dimensions because it is dual to an ordinary quantum field theory on $AdS_5$ whose causal structure remains fixed for all values of its couplings; or 3) there is no consistent quantisation of string theory on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ for finite string scale $l_s$ and $g_s$. In evaluating the evidence for each of these conclusions we point out that many of the tests of the Maldacena conjecture can be explained by a weaker form of an $AdS/CFT$ correspondence.