Charalampos Anastasiou, Andreas Brandhuber, Paul Heslop, Valentin V. Khoze, Bill Spence, Gabriele Travaglini
备注：
54 pages, 13 figures. v4: minor typo in the definition of the hard integral corrected v3: references added, minor corrections. v2: typos corrected, one reference added
We compute for the first time the two-loop corrections to arbitrary n-gon lightlike Wilson loops in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, using efficient numerical methods. The calculation is motivated by the remarkable agreement between the finite part of planar six-point MHV amplitudes and hexagon Wilson loops which has been observed at two loops. At n=6 we confirm that the ABDK/BDS ansatz must be corrected by adding a remainder function, which depends only on conformally invariant ratios of kinematic variables. We numerically compute remainder functions for n=7,8 and verify dual conformal invariance. Furthermore, we study simple and multiple collinear limits of the Wilson loop remainder functions and demonstrate that they have precisely the form required by the collinear factorisation of the corresponding two-loop n-point amplitudes. The number of distinct diagram topologies contributing to the n-gon Wilson loops does not increase with n, and there is a fixed number of "master integrals", which we have computed. Thus we have essentially computed general polygon Wilson loops, and if the correspondence with amplitudes continues to hold, all planar n-point two-loop MHV amplitudes in the N=4 theory.
We derive the two loop expressions for polygonal Wilson loops by starting from the one loop expressions and applying an operator product expansion. We do this for polygonal Wilson loops in R^{1,1} and find a result in agreement with previous computations. We also discuss the spectrum of excitations around flux tube that connects two null Wilson lines.
We introduce the notion of Multichannel Conformal Blocks relevant for the Operator Product Expansion for Null Polygon Wilson loops with more than six edges. As an application of these, we decompose the one loop heptagon Wilson loop and predict the value of its two loop OPE discontinuities. At the functional level, the OPE discontinuities are roughly half of the full result. Using symbols they suffice to predict the full two loop result. We also present several new predictions for the heptagon result at any loop order.
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…
Wilson loops with lightlike polygonal contours have been conjectured to be equivalent to MHV scattering amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills. We compute such Wilson loops for special polygonal contours at two loops in perturbation theory. Specifically, we concentrate on the remainder function R, obtained by subtracting the known ABDK/BDS ansatz from the Wilson loop. First, we consider a particular two-dimensional eight-point kinematics studied at strong coupling by Alday and Maldacena. We find numerical evidence that R is the same at weak and at strong coupling, up to an overall, coupling-depend…
The remainder function of Wilson loops for null polygons becomes divergent if two vertices approach each other. We apply RG techniques to the limiting configuration of a contour with self-intersection. As a result for the two loop remainder we find a quadratic divergence in the logarithm of the distance between the two approaching vertices. The divergence is multiplied by a factor, which is given by a pure number plus the product of two logarithms of cross-ratios characterising the conformal geometry of the self-crossing.
Schwarz-Christoffel (SC) mapping plays a crucial role in the calculation of the large-size expansion for polygonal Wilson loops in confining gauge theories using effective string theory (EST). Recently a new analytical regularization based on SC mapping was suggested and successfully applied to the calculation of the two-loop contribution of EST in the case of triangular Wilson loops. We prove that this analytical renormalization produces finite results for arbitrary polygonal Wilson loops and show that the result of the analytical renormalization for a given polygonal contour is independent o…
Expectation value of lightlike polygon Wilson loop is computed in the three-dimensional ABJM theory up to second-order in `t Hooft coupling in the limit of infinitely many colors and the result is critically compared with that in the four-dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. We first obtain analytic result for hexagon Wilson loop by combining Mellin-Barnes transformation, high precision numerical computation and the PSLQ algorithm. We then derive a version of operator product expansion (OPE) that reduces lightlike n-gon to a linear combination of (n-2)-gons in the soft-collinear limit of t…
We discuss formulation of Wilson polygon - MHV amplitude duality at the perturbative level in various regularizations. For four gluons it is shown that at one loop one can formulate diagrammatic correspondence interpolating between the dimensional regularization and the off-shell one. We suggest new interpretation of all types of box diagrams in terms of the dual simplex in dimensional regularization and describe its degeneration to the Wilson polygon. The interesting nullification phenomena for the low-energy amplitudes in the Higgsed phase has been found.
We present integral equations for the area of minimal surfaces in AdS_3 ending on generic smooth boundary contours. The equations are derived from the continuum limit of the AMSV result for null polygonal boundary contours. Remarkably these continuum equations admit exact solutions in some special cases. In particular we describe a novel exact solution which interpolates between the circle and 4-cusp solutions.
We discuss the origin of the Wilson polygon - MHV amplitude duality at the perturbative level. It is shown that the duality for the MHV amplitudes at one-loop level can be proven upon the peculiar change of variables in Feynman parametrization and the use of the relation between Feynman integrals at the different space-time dimensions. Some generalization of the duality which implies the insertion of the particular vertex operator at the Wilson triangle is found for the 3-point function. We discuss analytical structure of Wilson loop diagrams and present the corresponding Landau equations. The…
We analyse the breaking of conformal invariance for null polygonal Wilson loops in ${\cal N}=4$ SYM beyond that induced by the UV divergences due to the cusps. It only shows up in exceptional configurations, where the polygon intersects the critical light cone of an inversion or a special conformal transformation. In comparison with the related study for the Euclidean version by Drukker and Gross, we find different leading terms both for weak as well as for strong coupling. Hence the conformal anomaly due to intersections of a null polygon with a critical light cone defines a new universal fun…
We compute the one-loop expectation value of light-like polygonal Wilson loops in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory in full superspace. When projecting to chiral superspace we recover the known results for tree-level next-to-maximally-helicity-violating (NMHV) scattering amplitude. The one-loop MHV amplitude is also included in our result but there are additional terms which do not immediately correspond to scattering amplitudes. We finally discuss different regularizations and their Yangian anomalies.
In the framework of effective string theory (EST), the asymptotic behavior of a large Wilson loop in confining gauge theories can be expressed via Laplace determinant with Dirichlet boundary condition on the Wilson contour. For a general polygonal region, Laplace determinant can be computed using the conformal anomaly and Schwarz-Christoffel transformation. One can construct ratios of polygonal Wilson loops whose large-size limit can be expressed via computable Laplace determinants and is independent of the (confining) gauge group. These ratios are computed for hexagon polygons both in EST and…
We derive the anomalous conformal Ward identities for ${\cal N}=4$ SYM Wilson loops on polygon-like contours with edges formed by circular arcs. With a suitable choice of parameterisation they are very similarly to those for local correlation functions. Their solutions have a conformally covariant factor depending on the distances of the corners times a conformally invariant remainder factor depending, besides on cross ratios of the corners, on the cusp angles and angles parameterising the torsion of the contours.
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 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…
We obtain concise analytic formulae for Wilson loops computed on special n-point polygonal contours through two-loops in weakly coupled N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory. The contours we consider can be embedded into a (1+1)-dimensional subspace of the 4-dimensional gauge theory, corresponding to the boundary of the AdS_3 on the string theory side. Our analytic results hold for any number of edges, thus generalising to arbitrary n the recently derived expressions for 2-dimensional octagons. These polygonal Wilson loops have been conjectured to be equivalent to MHV scattering amplitudes in planar…
Scattering amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric gauge theory are dual to super-Wilson loops on null polygonal contours. The operator product expansion for the latter revealed that their dynamics is governed by the evolution of multiparticle GKP excitations. They were shown to emerge from the spectral problem of an underlying open spin chain. In this work we solve this model with the help of the Baxter Q-operator and Sklyanin's Separation of Variables methods. We provide an explicit construction for eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of GKP excitations. We demonstrate how the former define the so…
We start with an n-point correlation function in a conformal gauge theory. We show that a special limit produces a polygonal Wilson loop with $n$ sides. The limit takes the $n$ points towards the vertices of a null polygonal Wilson loop such that successive distances $x^2_{i,i+1} \to 0$. This produces a fast moving particle that generates a "frame" for the Wilson loop. We explain in detail how the limit is approached, including some subtle effects from the propagation of a fast moving particle in the full interacting theory. We perform perturbative checks by doing explicit computations in N=4 …
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 …
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 consider minimal surfaces in three dimensional anti-de-Sitter space that end at the AdS boundary on a polygon given by a sequence of null segments. The problem can be reduced to a certain generalized Sinh-Gordon equation and to SU(2) Hitchin equations. We describe in detail the mathematical problem that needs to be solved. This problem is mathematically the same as the one studied by Gaiotto, Moore and Neitzke in the context of the moduli space of certain supersymmetric theories. Using their results we can find the explicit answer for the area of a surface that ends on an eight-sided polygo…
We consider polygonal Wilson loops with null edges in conformal gauge theories. We derive an OPE-like expansion when several successive lines of the polygon are becoming aligned. The limit corresponds to a collinear, or multicollinear, limit and we explain the systematics of all the subleading corrections, going beyond the leading terms that were previously considered. These subleading corrections are governed by excitations of high spin operators, or excitations of a flux tube that goes between two Wilson lines. The discussion is valid for any conformal gauge theory, for any coupling and in a…
For the asymptotic string solution in AdS_3 which is represented by the AdS_3 Poincare coordinates and yields the planar multi-gluon scattering amplitude at strong coupling in arXiv:0904.0663, we express it by the AdS_4 Poincare coordinates and demonstrate that the hexagonal and octagonal Wilson loops surrounding the string surfaces take closed contours consisting of null vectors in R^{1,2} owing to the relations of Stokes matrices. For the tetragonal Wilson loop we construct a string solution characterized by two parameters by solving the auxiliary linear problems and demanding a reality cond…
We discuss the relation between correlation functions of twist-two large spin operators and expectation values of Wilson loops along light-like trajectories. After presenting some heuristic field theoretical arguments suggesting this relation, we compute the divergent part of the correlator in the limit of large 't Hooft coupling and large spins, using a semi-classical worldsheet which asymptotically looks like a GKP rotating string. We show this diverges as expected from the expectation value of a null Wilson loop, namely, as $(\ln{μ^{-2}})^ 2$, $μ$ being a cut-off of the theory.
We consider the ratio of the correlation function of n+1 local operators over the correlator of the first n of these operators in planar N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory, and consider the limit where the first n operators become pairwise null separated. By studying the problem in twistor space, we prove that this is equivalent to the correlator of a n-cusp null polygonal Wilson loop with the remaining operator in general position, normalized by the expectation value of the Wilson loop itself, as recently conjectured by Alday, Buchbinder and Tseytlin. Twistor methods also provide a BCFW-like recursi…
Using an extension of the concept of twist field in QFT to space-time (external) symmetries, we study conical twist fields in two-dimensional integrable QFT. These create conical singularities of arbitrary excess angle. We show that, upon appropriate identification between the excess angle and the number of sheets, they have the same conformal dimension as branch-point twist fields commonly used to represent partition functions on Riemann surfaces, and that both fields have closely related form factors. However, we show that conical twist fields are truly different from branch-point twist fiel…
Using the Operator Product Expansion for Wilson loops we derive a simple formula giving the discontinuities of the two loop result in terms of the one loop answer. We also argue that the knowledge of these discontinuities should be enough to fix the full two loop answer, for a general number of sides. We work this out explicitly for the case of the hexagon and rederive the known result.
We consider a light-like Wilson loop in N=4 SYM evaluated on a regular n-polygon contour. Sending the number of edges to infinity the polygon approximates a circle and the expectation value of the light-like WL is expected to tend to the localization result for the circular one. We show this explicitly at one loop, providing a prescription to deal with the divergences of the light-like WL and the large n limit. Taking this limit entails evaluating certain sums of dilogarithms which, for a regular polygon, evaluate to the same constant independently of n. We show that this occurs thanks to unde…
The contributions of scalars and fermions to the null polygonal bosonic Wilson loops/gluon MHV scattering amplitudes in $\mathcal{N} = 4$ SYM are considered. We first examine the re-summation of scalars at strong coupling. Then, we disentangle the form of the fermion contribution and show its strong coupling expansion. In particular, we derive the leading order with the appearance of a fermion-anti-fermion bound state first and then effective multiple bound states thereof. This reproduces the string minimal area result and also applies to the Nekrasov instanton partition function $\mathcal{Z}$…
Previously predicted by the $S$-matrix bootstrap of the excitations over the GKP quantum vacuum, the appearance of a new particle at strong coupling -- formed by one fermion and one anti-fermion -- is here confirmed: this two-dimensional meson shows up, along with its infinite tower of bound states, while analysing the fermionic contributions to the Operator Product Expansion (collinear regime) of the Wilson null polygon loop. Moreover, its existence, free \footnote{This term is used here as opposite to bound, thus as {\it unbound}.} and bound, turns out to be a powerful idea in re-summing all…
In previous investigations, it was found that four-sided polygonal light-like Wilson loops in ABJM theory calculated to two-loop order have the same form as the corresponding Wilson loop in N = 4 SYM at one-loop order. Here we study light-like polygonal Wilson loops with n cusps in planar three-dimensional Chern-Simons and ABJM theory to two loops. Remarkably, the result in ABJM theory precisely agrees with the corresponding Wilson loop in N = 4 SYM at one-loop order for arbitrary n. In particular, anomalous conformal Ward identites allow for a so-called remainder function of conformal cross r…
The cross-ratios do not uniquely fix the class of conformally equivalent configurations of null polygons. In view of applications to Wilson loops and scattering amplitudes we characterise all conformal classes of null hexagon configurations belonging to given points in cross-ratio space. At first this is done for the ordered set of vertices. Including the edges, we then investigate the equivalence classes under conformal transformations for null hexagons. This is done both for the set of null hexagons closed in finite domains of Minkowski space as well as for the set including those closed via…
Polygonal lines are used for the paths of the gluon field phase factors entering in the definition of gauge invariant quark Green's functions. This allows classification of the Green's functions according to the number of segments the polygonal lines contain. Functional relations are established between Green's functions with polygonal lines with different numbers of segments. An integrodifferential equation is obtained for the quark two-point Green's function with a path along a single straight line segment where the kernels are represented by a series of Wilson loop averages along polygonal …
We study the first non-planar correction to gluon scattering amplitudes in ${\cal N}=4$ SYM theory. The correction takes the form of a double trace partial amplitude and is suppressed by one power of $1/N$ with respect to the leading single trace contribution. We extend the duality between planar scattering amplitudes and null polygonal Wilson loops to the double trace amplitude. The new duality relates the amplitude to the correlation function of two infinite null polygonal Wilson lines that are subject to a quantum periodicity constraint. We test the duality perturbatively at one-loop order …
We discuss and extend recent conjectures relating partial null limits of correlation functions of local gauge invariant operators and the expectation value of null polygonal Wilson loops and local gauge invariant operators. We point out that a particular partial null limit provides a strategy for the calculation of the anomalous dimension of short twist-two operators at weak and strong coupling.
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 construct a regularization for light-like polygonal Wilson loops in ${\cal N}=4$ SYM, which matches them to the off-shell MHV gluon scattering amplitudes. Explicit calculations are performed for the 1-loop four gluon case. The off light cone extrapolation has to be based on the local supersymmetric Wilson loop. The observed matching concerns Feynman gauge. Furthermore, the leading infrared divergent term is shown to be gauge parameter independent on 1-loop level.
We study the supersymmetric Wilson loop as introduced by Caron-Huot, which attaches to lightlike polygons certain edge and vertex operators, whose shape is determined by supersymmetry constraints. We state explicit formulas for the vertex operators to all orders in the Graßmann expansion, thus filling a gap in the literature. This is achieved by deriving a recursion formula out of the supersymmetry constraints.
We work out the map between null polygonal hexagonal Wilson loops and spinning three point functions in large $N$ conformal gauge theories by mapping the variables describing the two different physical quantities and by working out the precise normalization factors entering this duality. By fixing all the kinematics we open the ground for a precise study of the dynamics underlying these dualities -- most notably through integrability in the case of planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory.
This short note is some obvious mathematical addendum to our papers on Wilson loops on polygon-like contours with circular edges \cite{Dorn:2020meb,Dorn:2020vzj}. Using the technique of osculating spheres and circles we identify the conformal invariants characterising the kinks (cusps) of generic piecewise smooth curves in 3-dimensional space.
In this paper we construct a light-like polygonal Wilson loop in N=6 superspace for ABJM theory. We then use it to obtain constraints on its two- and three-loop bosonic version, by focusing on higher order terms in the $θ$ expansion. The Grassmann expansion of the three-loop answer contains integrals which may be elliptic polylogarithms. Our results take their simplest form when expressed in terms of OSp(6|4) supertwistors.
In this review we discuss some recent developments related to one-loop N = 4 super Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes calculated to all orders in epsilon. It is often the case that one-loop gauge theory computations are carried out to order epsilon^0, since higher order in epsilon contributions vanish in the limit as epsilon goes to zero. We will show, however, that the higher order contributions are actually quite useful. In the context of maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills, we consider two examples in detail to illustrate our point. First we concentrate on computations with gluonic external s…
Traditionally, the duality between Wilson loops and amplitudes beyond one loop in N=4 SYM is characterised by the remainder function. Because of the perturbative origins of the BDS expression, the remainder function is more natural at weak than at strong coupling. We advocate instead a more direct approach, based on considering ratios of Wilson loops. This allows us to define a manifestly finite, regularisation independent, conformally invariant quantity. It does not make a direct reference to the BDS expression and the definition is regularisation independent. It is a natural object at weak a…
We discuss gluon scattering amplitudes/null-polygonal Wilson loops of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling based on the gauge/string duality and its underlying integrability. We focus on the amplitudes/Wilson loops corresponding to the minimal surfaces in AdS_3, which are described by the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations of the homogeneous sine-Gordon model. Using conformal perturbation theory and an interesting relation between the g-function (boundary entropy) and the T-function, we derive analytic expansions around the limit where the Wilson loops become regular-polygonal. W…
Null Polygon Wilson Loops (WL) in N=4 SYM can be computed using the Operator Product Expansion in terms of a transition amplitude on top of a color flux tube (FT). That picture is valid at any value of the 't Hooft coupling. So far it has been efficiently used at weak coupling (WC) in cases where only a single particle is flowing. At any finite value of the coupling however, an infinite number of particles are flowing on top of the color FT. A major open problem in this approach was how to deal with generic multi-particle states at WC. In this paper we study the propagation of any number of FT…
We analyze the perturbative cusp and closed polygons of Wilson lines for massless gauge theories in coordinate space, and express them as exponentials of two-dimensional integrals. These integrals have geometric interpretations, which link renormalization scales with invariant distances.
The asymptotic behavior of Wilson loops in the large-size limit ($L\rightarrow\infty$) in confining gauge theories with area law is controlled by effective string theory (EST). The $L^{-2}$ term of the large-size expansion for the logarithm of Wilson loop appears within EST as a two-loop correction. Ultraviolet divergences of this two-loop correction for polygonal contours can be renormalized using an analytical regularization constructed in terms of Schwarz-Christoffel mapping. In the case of triangular Wilson loops this method leads to a simple final expression for the $L^{-2}$ term.
One of the many remarkable features of MHV scattering amplitudes is their conjectured equality to lightlike polygon Wilson loops, which apparently holds at all orders in perturbation theory as well as non-perturbatively. This duality is usually expressed in terms of purely four-dimensional quantities obtained by appropriate subtraction of the IR and UV divergences from amplitudes and Wilson loops respectively. In this paper we demonstrate, by explicit calculation, the completely unanticipated fact that the equality continues to hold at two loops through order epsilon in dimensional regularizat…
We find a new duality for form factors of lightlike Wilson loops in planar $\mathcal N=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory. The duality maps a form factor involving an $n$-sided lightlike polygonal super-Wilson loop together with $m$ external on-shell states, to the same type of object but with the edges of the Wilson loop and the external states swapping roles. This relation can essentially be seen graphically in Lorentz harmonic chiral (LHC) superspace where it is equivalent to planar graph duality. However there are some crucial subtleties with the cancellation of spurious poles due to the gauge fix…
We study Feynman integrals and scattering amplitudes in ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills by exploiting the duality with null polygonal Wilson loops. Certain Feynman integrals, including one-loop and two-loop chiral pentagons, are given by Feynman diagrams of a supersymmetric Wilson loop, where one can perform loop integrations and be left with simple integrals along edges. As the main application, we compute analytically for the first time, the symbol of the generic ($n\geq 12$) double pentagon, which gives two-loop MHV amplitudes and components of NMHV amplitudes to all multiplicities. We repres…
We consider the (multi) Splitting function of Wilson loops and MHV gluon scattering S matrix elements in N=4 SYM. At strong coupling, one can utilize the methods of Alday and Maldacena and at weak coupling (one loop) the correspondence to light like Wilson loops is used. In both cases, the (multi) Splitting function corresponds to flattened cusps in the light like polygon, allowing for a clean disentanglement from the other gluons. We compute it in some cases and estimate some terms in other cases. We also prove the anomalous Ward identity of Drummond et al. in the strong coupling regime. Last…
Wilson Loops with Lagrangians: Large Spin OPE and Cusp Anomalous Dimension Dictionary
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（德国电子同步加速器）；Centro de Fisica do Porto e Departamento de Fisica e Astronomia, Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade do Porto（波尔图大学理学院物理与天文学系及波尔图物理中心）；Department of Mathematics, King’s College London（伦敦国王学院数学系）
We point out a simple realization of gauge symmetry enhancement by Wilson lines in QFT with twisted compactification in extra dimensions. We illustrate this in the field contents taken from heterotic supergravity in arbitrary dimensions toroidally compactified.
We study n-point correlation functions for chiral primary operators in three dimensional supersymmetric Chern-Simons matter theories. Our analysis is carried on in N=2 superspace and covers N=2,3 supersymmetric CFT's, the N=6 ABJM and the N=8 BLG models. In the limit where the positions of adjacent operators become light-like, we find that the one-loop n-point correlator divided by its tree level expression coincides with a light-like n-polygon Wilson loop. Remarkably, the result can be simply expressed as a linear combination of five dimensional two-mass easy boxes. We manage to evaluate the …
We present a three-loop O(g^6) calculation of the difference between the expectation values of Wilson loops evaluated in N=4 and superconformal N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with gauge group SU(N) using dimensional reduction. We find a massive reduction of required Feynman diagrams, leaving only certain two-matter-loop corrections to the gauge field and associated scalar propagator. This "diagrammatic difference" leaves a finite result proportional to the bare propagators and allows the recovery of the zeta(3) term coming from the matrix model for the 1/2 BPS circular Wilson loop in the…
We study the null-polygonal minimal surfaces in AdS_4, which correspond to the gluon scattering amplitudes/Wilson loops in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling. The area of the minimal surfaces with n cusps is characterized by the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA) integral equations or the Y-system of the homogeneous sine-Gordon model, which is regarded as the SU(n-4)_4/U(1)^{n-5} generalized parafermion theory perturbed by the weight-zero adjoint operators. Based on the relation to the TBA systems of the perturbed W minimal models, we solve the TBA equations by using the conformal pe…
We study the conditions under which a symmetry is spontaneously broken in the Wilson renormalization group formulation. Both for a global and local symmetry, the result is that in perturbation theory one has to perform a fine tuning of the boundary conditions for the flow of the relevant couplings. We consider in detail the discrete $Z_2$ case and the Abelian Higgs model.
