I review several old/new approaches to the string/gauge correspondence for the cusped/lightcone Wilson loops. The main attention is payed to SYM perturbation theory calculations at two loops and beyond and to the cusped loop equation.
These three introductory lectures were given at the 48 Cracow School of Theoretical Physics: "Aspects of Duality", June 13-22, 2008, Zakopane, Poland.
We propose and discuss a new approach to the analysis of the correlation functions which contain light-like Wilson lines or loops, the latter being cusped in addition. The objects of interest are therefore the light-like Wilson null-polygons, the soft factors of the parton distribution and fragmentation functions, high-energy scattering amplitudes in the eikonal approximation, gravitational Wilson lines, etc. Our method is based on a generalization of the universal quantum dynamical principle by J. Schwinger and allows one to take care of extra singularities emerging due to light-like or semi-…
We address a connection between the energy evolution of the polygonal light-like Wilson exponentials and the geometry of the loop space with the gauge invariant Wilson loops of a variety of shapes being the fundamental degrees of freedom. The renormalization properties and the differential area evolution of these Wilson polygons are studied by making use of the universal Schwinger quantum dynamical approach. We discuss the appropriateness of the dynamical differential equations in the loop space to the study of the energy evolution of the collinear and transverse-momentum dependent parton dist…
We discuss the possible relation between certain geometrical properties of the loop space and energy evolution of the cusped Wilson exponentials defined on the light-cone. Analysis of the area differential equations for this special class of the Wilson loops calls for careful treatment of the ultraviolet and rapidity divergences which make those loops non-multiplicatively-renormalizable. We propose to consider the renormalization properties of the light-cone cusped Wilson loops from the point of view of the universal quantum dynamical approach introduced by Schwinger. We conjecture and discuss…
Compact expressions in terms of the Q-functions of the Quantum Spectral Curve are given for 3-cusped fundamental Wilson loops in the ladders limit of $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills with additional scalars inserted at a cusp between uncoupled arcs. This gives some further credence to the already natural and evidenced view that the Quantum Spectral Curve in fact pertains to a wide class of observables beyond the spectrum, as well as providing additional nonperturbative ladders limit results.
We study the cusped Wilson line operators and Bremsstrahlung functions associated to particles transforming in the rank-$k$ symmetric representation of the gauge group $U(N)$ for ${\cal N} = 4$ super Yang-Mills. We find the holographic D3-brane description for Wilson loops with internal cusps in two different limits: small cusp angle and $k\sqrtλ\gg N$. This allows for a non-trivial check of a conjectured relation between the Bremsstrahlung function and the expectation value of the 1/2 BPS circular loop in the case of a representation other than the fundamental. Moreover, we observe that in th…
We calculate the anomalous dimension of the cusped Wilson loop in ${\cal N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory to order $λ^2$ ($λ=g^2_{YM}N$). We show that the cancellation between the diagrams with the three-point vertex and the self-energy insertion to the propagator which occurs for smooth Wilson loops is not complete for cusped loops, so that an anomaly term remains. This term contributes to the cusp anomalous dimension. The result agrees with the anomalous dimensions of twist-two conformal operators with large spin. We verify the loop equation for cusped loops to order $λ^2$, reproducing…
We consider the classical limit of the recently obtained exact result for the anomalous dimension of a cusped Wilson line with the insertion of an operator with L units of R-charge at the cusp in planar N=4 SYM. The classical limit requires taking both the 't Hooft coupling and L to infinity. Since the formula for the cusp anomalous dimension involves determinants of size proportional to L, the classical limit requires a matrix model reformulation of the result. We construct such matrix model-like representation and find corresponding classical algebraic curve. Using this we derive the classic…
In this paper, minimal surface in $q$-deformed $AdS_5\times S^5$ with boundary a cusp is studied in detail. This minimal surface is dual to cusped Wilson loop in the dual field theory. We found that the area of the minimal surface has both logarithmic squared divergence and logarithmic divergence. The logarithmic squared divergence can not be removed by either Legendre transformation or the usual geometric substraction. We further make analytic continuation to the Minkowski signature %for the case without the jump and take the limit such that the two edges of the cusp become light-like and ext…
We analyse a light-like cusped Wilson loop in N=6 superconformal Chern-Simons theory at both weak and strong coupling in light-cone gauge. At the second order in the 't Hooft coupling $λ$ the correct cusp anomalous dimension $Γ_{\rm cusp}=-ϕ/ 2 λ^2$ is recovered through a deformation of the contour that takes both rays of the cusp slightly off of the light-cone. The strong coupling behaviour is addressed by means of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for ladders of tree-level gauge propagators and ladders of one-loop corrected gauge propagators. It turns out that, as might be expected, the contributi…
We show that the Quantum Spectral Curve (QSC) formalism, initially formulated for the spectrum of anomalous dimensions of all local single trace operators in N=4 SYM, can be extended to the generalized cusp anomalous dimension for all values of the parameters. We find that the large spectral parameter asymptotics and some analyticity properties have to be modified, but the functional relations are unchanged. As a demonstration, we find an all-loop analytic expression for the first two nontrivial terms in the small |phi \pm theta| expansion. We also present nonperturbative numerical results at …
This is about new unexpected features of the Mandestam-Leibbrandt prescription found as applied to spacelike Wilson lines. The regularization parameter $ ω$ in the M-L denominator for the spurious poles has to be kept throughout the calculation till the very end or else the integrals do not make sense. We get various `ambiguous' terms of the form $ ω^{-{ε\over2}} ε^{-2} $ which are not controlled by any sort of Ward identity. These terms cancel out in the sum and the final result is independent of $ ω$. However, for the self energy on the spacelike Wilson line we obtain an unexpected double po…
We review, in a self-contained and pedagogical manner, recent developments and techniques for the evaluation of the scattering amplitudes of planar N=4 SYM theory at both weak and strong coupling. Special emphasis is placed on the newly discovered connection between a special class of amplitudes and the expectation values of particular cusped light-like Wilson loops.
Equations of motion for the light-like QCD Wilson loops are studied in the generalized loop space (GLS) setting. To this end, the classically conformal-invariant non-local variations of the cusped Wilson exponentials lying (partially) on the light-cone are formulated in terms of the Fréchet derivative. The rapidity and renormalization-group behaviour of the gauge-invariant quantum correlation functions (in particular, the three-dimensional parton densities) are demonstrated to be connected to certain geometrical properties of the Wilson loops defined in the GLS.
The generalized quark-antiquark potential of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on S^3 x R calculates the potential between a pair of heavy charged particles separated by an arbitrary angle on S^3 and also an angle in flavor space. It can be calculated by a Wilson loop following a prescribed path and couplings, or after a conformal transformation, by a cusped Wilson loop in flat space, hence also generalizing the usual concept of the cusp anomalous dimension. In AdS_5 x S^5 this is calculated by an infinite open string. I present here an open spin-chain model which calculates the spectrum of…
We address the scaling behaviour of contour-shape-dependent ultra-violet singularities of the light-like cusped Wilson loops in Yang-Mills and ${\cal N} = 4$ super-Yang-Mills theories in the higher orders of the perturbative expansion. We give the simple arguments to support the idea that identifying of a special type of non-local infinitesimal shape variations of the light-like Wilson polygons with the Fréchet differentials results in the combined geometric and renormalization-group evolution equation, which is applicable beyond the leading order exponentiated Wilson loops.
We address the equations of motion for the light-like QCD Wilson exponentials defined in the generalized loop space. We attribute an important class of the infinitesimal shape variations of the rectangular light-like Wilson loops to the Fréchet derivative associated to a diffeomorphism in loop space what enables the derivation of the law of the classically conformal-invariant shape variations. We show explicitly that the Fréchet derivative coincides (at least in the leading perturbative or- der) with the area differential operator introduced in the previous works. We discuss interesting implic…
We study the quantum properties of certain BPS Wilson loops in ${\cal N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. They belong to a general family, introduced recently, in which the addition of particular scalar couplings endows generic loops on $S^3$ with a fraction of supersymmetry. When restricted to $S^2$, their quantum average has been further conjectured to be exactly computed by the matrix model governing the zero-instanton sector of YM$_2$ on the sphere. We perform a complete two-loop analysis on a class of cusped Wilson loops lying on a two-dimensional sphere, finding perfect agreement wit…
We study light-like polygonal Wilson loops in three-dimensional Chern-Simons and ABJM theory to two-loop order. For both theories we demonstrate that the one-loop contribution to these correlators cancels. For pure Chern-Simons, we find that specific UV divergences arise from diagrams involving two cusps, implying the loss of finiteness and topological invariance at two-loop order. Studying those UV divergences we derive anomalous conformal Ward identities for n-cusped Wilson loops which restrict the finite part of the latter to conformally invariant functions. We also compute the four-cusp Wi…
The present study illuminates the relation between null cusped Wilson loops and their corresponding amplitudes. We find that, compared to the case with no self-crossing, the one loop expectation value of a self-intersecting Wilson loop develops an additional 1/εsingularity associated to the intersection. Interestingly, the same 1/εpole exists in the finite part of the one loop amplitude, appearing in the BDS conjecture, at the corresponding kinematic limit. At two loops, we explore the behaviour of the remainder function R, encoding the deviation of the amplitude from the BDS conjecture. By an…
We consider the correlator <W_n O(x)> of a light-like polygonal Wilson loop with n cusps with a local operator (like the dilaton or the chiral primary scalar) in planar N =4 super Yang-Mills theory. As a consequence of conformal symmetry, the main part of such correlator is a function F of 3n-11 conformal ratios. The first non-trivial case is n=4 when F depends on just one conformal ratio ζ. This makes the corresponding correlator one of the simplest non-trivial observables that one would like to compute for generic values of the `t Hooft coupling λ. We compute F(ζ,λ) at leading order in both …
This report attempts to capture the essential workings of gauge links (Wilson lines) inside gauge-invariant formulations of parton distribution functions in QCD and gain some deeper insight into their key (renormalization) properties. We show, in particular, that the one-loop anomalous dimension of the Cherednikov-Stefanis quark TMD PDF is in the lightcone gauge $A^+=0$, combined with the Mandelstam--Leibbrandt pole prescription, the same as that obtained in the special covariant gauge $a=-3$, leaving no uncanceled rapidity singularities.
We consider a cusped Wilson line with J insertions of scalar fields in N=4 SYM and prove that in a certain limit the Feynman graphs are integrable to all loop orders. We identify the integrable system as a quantum fishchain with open boundary conditions. The existence of the boundary degrees of freedom results in the boundary reflection operator acting non-trivially on the physical space. We derive the Baxter equation for Q-functions and provide the quantisation condition for the spectrum. This allows us to find the non-perturbative spectrum numerically.
We construct a generalized cusped Wilson loop operator in N = 6 super Chern-Simons-matter theories which is locally invariant under half of the supercharges. It depends on two parameters and interpolates smoothly between the 1/2 BPS line or circle and a pair of antiparallel lines, representing a natural generalization of the quark-antiquark potential in ABJ(M) theories. For particular choices of the parameters we obtain 1/6 BPS configurations that, mapped on S^2 by a conformal transformation, realize a three-dimensional analogue of the wedge DGRT Wilson loop of N = 4. The cusp couples, in addi…
Probing the dynamics of stringy flux tubes with large $R$-charge
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY(德国电子同步加速器);Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin(柏林洪堡大学);University of Iceland(冰岛大学);Università di Parma(帕尔马大学);INFN(意大利国家核物理研究所);Universitá di Firenze(佛罗伦萨大学)