arXiv subjects

Jaume Gomis

Publications and source records attributed to Jaume Gomis.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Gauge Theory Loop Operators and Liouville Theory

We propose a correspondence between loop operators in a family of four dimensional N=2 gauge theories on S^4 -- including Wilson, 't Hooft and dyonic operators -- and Liouville theory loop operators on a Riemann surface. This extends the beautiful relation between the partition function of these N=2 gauge theories and Liouville correlators found by Alday, Gaiotto and Tachikawa. We show that the computation of these Liouville correlators with the insertion of a Liouville loop operator reproduces Pestun's formula capturing the expectation value of a Wilson loop operator in the corresponding gauge theory. We prove that our definition of Liouville loop operators is invariant under modular transformations, which given our correspondence, implies the conjectured action of S-duality on the gauge theory loop operators. Our computations in Liouville theory make an explicit prediction for the exact expectation value of 't Hooft and dyonic loop operators in these N=2 gauge theories. The Liouville loop operators are also found to admit a simple geometric interpretation within quantum Teichmuller theory as the quantum operators representing the length of geodesics. We study the algebra of Liouville loop operators and show that it gives evidence for our proposal as well as providing definite predictions for the operator product expansion of loop operators in gauge theory.

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arXiv2009

S-duality, 't Hooft operators and the operator product expansion

We study S-duality in N=4 super Yang-Mills with an arbitrary gauge group by determining the operator product expansion of the circular BPS Wilson and 't Hooft loop operators. The coefficients in the expansion of an 't Hooft loop operator for chiral primary operators and the stress-energy tensor are calculated in perturbation theory using the quantum path-integral definition of the 't Hooft operator recently proposed. The corresponding operator product coefficients for the dual Wilson loop operator are determined in the strong coupling expansion. The results for the 't Hooft operator in the weak coupling expansion exactly reproduce those for the dual Wilson loop operator in the strong coupling expansion, thereby demonstrating the quantitative prediction of S-duality for these observables.

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arXiv2009

Quantum 't Hooft operators and S-duality in N=4 super Yang-Mills

We provide a quantum path integral definition of an 't Hooft loop operator, which inserts a pointlike monopole in a four dimensional gauge theory. We explicitly compute the expectation value of the circular 't Hooft operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills with arbitrary gauge group G up to next to leading order in perturbation theory. We also compute in the strong coupling expansion the expectation value of the circular Wilson loop operators. The result of the computation of an 't Hooft loop operator in the weak coupling expansion exactly reproduces the strong coupling result of the conjectured dual Wilson loop operator under the action of S-duality. This paper demonstrates - for the first time - that correlation functions in N=4 super Yang-Mills admit the action of S-duality.

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arXiv2009

Wilson loop correlators at strong coupling: from matrices to bubbling geometries

We compute at strong coupling the large N correlation functions of supersymmetric Wilson loops in large representations of the gauge group with local operators of N=4 super Yang-Mills. The gauge theory computation of these correlators is performed using matrix model techniques. We show that the strong coupling correlator of the Wilson loop with the stress tensor computed using the matrix model exactly matches the semiclassical computation of the correlator of the 't Hooft loop with the stress tensor, providing a non-trivial quantitative test of electric-magnetic duality of N=4 super Yang-Mills. We then perform these calculations using the dual bulk gravitational picture, where the Wilson loop is described by a "bubbling" geometry. By applying holographic methods to these backgrounds we calculate the Wilson loop correlation functions, finding perfect agreement with our gauge theory results.

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arXiv2009

The complete AdS(4) x CP(3) superspace for the type IIA superstring and D-branes

We lift the bosonic AdS_4 x CP^3 solution of type IIA supergravity preserving 24 supersymmetries to a D=10 superspace which has 32 Grassmann-odd directions. The type IIA superspace is obtained from D=11 via dimensional reduction of the coset superspace OSp(8|4)/SO(7) x SO(1,3) by realizing the latter as a Hopf fibration over the former. This construction generalizes to superspace the Hopf fibration of S^7 as a U(1) bundle over CP^3, and is suitable for writing the explicit form of Green-Schwarz-type actions encoding the dynamics of the type IIA string and branes in the AdS_4 x CP^3 superbackground. We show that the OSp(6|4)/U(3) x SO(1,3) supercoset string action describes only a subsector of the complete Green-Schwarz superstring. Thus, even though the superstring equations of motion in the OSp(6|4)/U(3) x SO(1,3) subsector are classically integrable, the fact that the full AdS_4 x CP^3 superspace is not a supercoset requires the use of more general methods to determine whether the superstring in the complete AdS_4 x CP^3 superbackground is classically integrable.

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arXiv2008

A Massive Study of M2-brane Proposals

We test the proposals for the worldvolume theory of M2-branes by studying its maximally supersymmetric mass-deformation. We check the simplest prediction for the mass-deformed theory on N M2-branes: that there should be a set of discrete vacua in one-to-one correspondence with partitions on N. For the mass-deformed Lorentzian three-algebra theory, we find only a single classical vacuum, casting doubt on its M2-brane interpretation. For the mass-deformed ABJM theory, we do find a discrete set of solutions, but these are more numerous than predicted. We discuss possible resolutions of this puzzling discrepancy. We argue that the classical vacuum solutions of the mass-deformed ABJM theory display properties of fuzzy three-spheres, as expected from their gravitational dual interpretation.

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arXiv2008

Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory From Lorentzian Three-Algebras

We show that by adding a supersymmetric Faddeev-Popov ghost sector to the recently constructed Bagger-Lambert theory based on a Lorentzian three algebra, we obtain an action with a BRST symmetry that can be used to demonstrate the absence of negative norm states in the physical Hilbert space. We show that the combined theory, expanded about its trivial vacuum, is BRST equivalent to a trivial theory, while the theory with a vev for one of the scalars associated with a null direction in the three-algebra is equivalent to a reformulation of maximally supersymmetric 2+1 dimensional Yang-Mills theory in which there a formal SO(8) superconformal invariance.

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arXiv2008

Bagger-Lambert Theory for General Lie Algebras

We construct the totally antisymmetric structure constants f^{ABCD} of a 3-algebra with a Lorentzian bi-invariant metric starting from an arbitrary semi-simple Lie algebra. The structure constants f^{ABCD} can be used to write down a maximally superconformal 3d theory that incorporates the expected degrees of freedom of multiple M2 branes, including the "center-of-mass" mode described by free scalar and fermion fields. The gauge field sector reduces to a three dimensional BF term, which underlies the gauge symmetry of the theory. We comment on the issue of unitarity of the quantum theory, which is problematic, despite the fact that the specific form of the interactions prevent the ghost fields from running in the internal lines of any Feynman diagram. Giving an expectation value to one of the scalar fields leads to the maximally supersymmetric 3d Yang-Mills Lagrangian with the addition of two U(1) multiplets, one of them ghost-like, which is decoupled at large g_YM.

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arXiv2008

Matrix Theory of Type IIB Plane Wave from Membranes

We write down a maximally supersymmetric one parameter deformation of the field theory action of Bagger and Lambert. We show that this theory on RxT^2 is invariant under the superalgebra of the maximally supersymmetric Type IIB plane wave. It is argued that this theory holographically describes the Type IIB plane wave in the discrete light-cone quantization (DLCQ).

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arXiv2008

Bubbling Surface Operators And S-Duality

We construct smooth asymptotically AdS_5xS^5 solutions of Type IIB supergravity corresponding to all the half-BPS surface operators in N=4 SYM. All the parameters labeling a half-BPS surface operator are identified in the corresponding bubbling geometry. We use the supergravity description of surface operators to study the action of the SL(2,Z) duality group of N=4 SYM on the parameters of the surface operator, and find that it coincides with the recent proposal by Gukov and Witten in the framework of the gauge theory approach to the geometrical Langlands with ramification. We also show that whenever a bubbling geometry becomes singular that the path integral description of the corresponding surface operator also becomes singular.

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arXiv2008

Probing N=4 SYM With Surface Operators

In this paper we study surface operators in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We compute surface operator observables, such as the expectation value of surface operators, the correlation function of surface operators with local operators, and the correlation function of surface operators with Wilson and 't Hooft loops. The calculations are performed using three different realizations of surface operators, corresponding respectively to the gauge theory path integral definition, the probe brane description in AdS_5xS^5 and the "bubbling'' supergravity description of surface operators. We find remarkable agreement between the different calculations performed using the three different realizations.

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arXiv2007

Holographic Gauge Theories in Background Fields and Surface Operators

We construct a new class of supersymmetric surface operators in N=4 SYM and find the corresponding dual supergravity solutions. We show that the insertion of the surface operator - which is given by a WZW model supported on the surface - appears by integrating out the localized degrees of freedom along the surface which arise microscopically from a D3/D7 brane intersection. Consistency requires constructing N=4 SYM in the D7 supergravity background and not in flat space. This enlarges the class of holographic gauge theories dual to string theory backgrounds to gauge theories in non-trivial supergravity backgrounds. The dual Type IIB supergravity solutions we find reveal - among other features - that the holographic dual gauge theory does indeed live in the D7-brane background.

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arXiv2007

Bubbling Defect CFT's

We study the gravitational description of conformal half-BPS domain wall operators in N=4 SYM, which are described by defect CFT's. These defect CFT's arise in the low energy limit of a Hanany-Witten like brane setup and are described in a probe brane approximation by a Karch-Randall brane configuration. The gravitational backreaction takes the five-branes in AdS_5xS^5 through a geometric transition and turns them into appropriate fluxes which are supported on non-trivial three-spheres.

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arXiv2007

D-branes as a Bubbling Calabi-Yau

We prove that the open topological string partition function on a D-brane configuration in a Calabi-Yau manifold X takes the form of a closed topological string partition function on a different Calabi-Yau manifold X_b. This identification shows that the physics of D-branes in an arbitrary background X of topological string theory can be described either by open+closed string theory in X or by closed string theory in X_b. The physical interpretation of the ''bubbling'' Calabi-Yau X_b is as the space obtained by letting the D-branes in X undergo a geometric transition. This implies, in particular, that the partition function of closed topological string theory on certain bubbling Calabi-Yau manifolds are invariants of knots in the three-sphere.

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arXiv2007

Wilson Loops, Geometric Transitions and Bubbling Calabi-Yau's

Motivated by recent developments in the AdS/CFT correspondence, we provide several alternative bulk descriptions of an arbitrary Wilson loop operator in Chern-Simons theory. Wilson loop operators in Chern-Simons theory can be given a description in terms of a configuration of branes or alternatively anti-branes in the resolved conifold geometry. The representation of the Wilson loop is encoded in the holonomy of the gauge field living on the dual brane configuration. By letting the branes undergo a new type of geometric transition, we argue that each Wilson loop operator can also be described by a bubbling Calabi-Yau geometry, whose topology encodes the representation of the Wilson loop. These Calabi-Yau manifolds provide a novel representation of knot invariants. For the unknot we confirm these identifications to all orders in the genus expansion.

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arXiv2006

Holographic Wilson Loops

We show that all half-BPS Wilson loop operators in N=4 SYM -- which are labeled by Young tableaus -- have a gravitational dual description in terms of D5-branes or alternatively in terms of D3-branes in AdS_5xS^5. We prove that the insertion of a half-BPS Wilson loop operator in the cal N=4 SYM path integral is achieved by integrating out the degrees of freedom on a configuration of bulk D5-branes or alternatively on a configuration of bulk D3-branes. The bulk D5-brane and D3-brane descriptions are related by bosonization.

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arXiv2006

Wilson Loops as D3-Branes

We prove that the half-BPS Wilson loop operator of N=4 SYM in a symmetric representation of the gauge group has a bulk gravitational description in terms of a single D3-brane in AdS_5xS^5, as argued in hep-th/0604007. We also show that a half-BPS Wilson loop operator in an arbitrary representation is described by the D3-brane configuration proposed in hep-th/0604007. This is demonstrated by explicitly integrating out the degrees of freedom on the D3-branes and showing that they insert a half-BPS Wilson loop operator into the N=4 SYM path integral in the desired representation.

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arXiv2005

An Open String Landscape

The effect of fluxes on open string moduli is studied by analyzing the constraints imposed by supersymmetry on D-branes in type IIB flux backgrounds. We show that generically the conditions of supersymmetry cannot be maintained when moving along the geometrical moduli space of the brane, so that open string moduli are lifted. We argue that there is a disconnected and discrete set of supersymmetric solutions to the open string equations of motion, which extends the familiar closed string landscape to the open string sector.

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