We examine the high energy (Regge) limit of gravitational scattering using a Wilson line approach previously used in the context of non-Abelian gauge theories. Our aim is to clarify the nature of the Reggeization of the graviton and the interplay between this Reggeization and the so-called eikonal phase which determines the spectrum of gravitational bound states. Furthermore, we discuss finite corrections to this picture. Our results are of relevance to various supergravity theories, and also help to clarify the relationship between gauge and gravity theories.
We calculate the expectation value of the Wilson line in the pure AdS$_3$ Einstein gravity theory and also the entanglement entropy in the boundary theory. Our one-loop calculation of entanglement entropy shows a shift of the central charge 26. Finally, we show that the Wilson line provides the equivalent description to the boundary entanglement entropy. This equivalence leads to a concrete example of the building of "minimum surface=entanglement entropy".
We compute the expectation values of both the time-like and the light-like Wilson loops in a strongly coupled plasma of (p+1)-dimensional Yang-Mills theories using gravity/gauge theory correspondence. From the time-like Wilson loop we obtain the velocity dependent quark-antiquark potential where the dipole is moving through the plasma with an arbitrary velocity 0<v<1 and also obtain expressions for the screening lengths. When the velocity v--> 1, the Wilson loop becomes light-like and we obtain the form of the jet quenching parameter in those strongly coupled plasma.
We study Wilson loops in the 4-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric quiver/M theory duality recently constructed by Gaiotto and Maldacena, that is conjectured to be dual to M2 branes on AdS_5\times S^4 fibered over Σ_2. We use the localization method raised by Pestun, in order to compute the Wilson loop in 4-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric linear quiver gauge theory. We obtained the consistent results in the quiver gauge theory and the 11-dimensional supergravity. This match supports the N=2 quiver SCFT / M theory supergravity duality.
We study $1/N$ corrections to a Wilson loop in holographic duality. Extending the AdS/CFT correspondence beyond the large $N$ limit is an important but a subtle issue, as it needs quantum gravity corrections in the gravity side. To find a physical property of the quantum corrected geometry of near-horizon black 0-branes previously obtained by Hyakutake, we evaluate a Euclidean string worldsheet hanging down in the geometry, which corresponds to a rectangular Wilson loop in the $SU(N)$ quantum mechanics with 16 supercharges at a finite temperature with finite $N$. We find that the potential ene…
By explicit construction, we show that one can in a simple way introduce and measure gravitational holonomies and Wilson loops in lattice formulations of nonperturbative quantum gravity based on (Causal) Dynamical Triangulations. We use this set-up to investigate a class of Wilson line observables associated with the world line of a point particle coupled to quantum gravity, and deduce from their expectation values that the underlying holonomies cover the group manifold of SO(4) uniformly
Two topics in soft collinear effective theory (SCET) for gravitational interactions are explored. First, the collinear Wilson lines---necessary building blocks for maintaining multiple copies of diffeomorphism invariance in gravity SCET---are extended to all orders in the SCET expansion parameter $λ$, where it has only been known to $O(λ)$ in the literature. Second, implications of reparametrization invariance (RPI) for the structure of gravity SCET lagrangians are studied. The utility of RPI is illustrated by an explicit example in which $O(λ^2)$ hard interactions of a collinear graviton are …
We calculate Wilson loops on boundaries of Lifshitz-like dual backgrounds with different scaling parameters, assuming existence of a field theory dual to string theory in the bulk. We consider scaling parameters to be variable quantities which are subject to cosmological evolution. It is observed that there are discontinuities in the classical string action at some values of the scaling parameters.
We study the Wilson line response in the holographic superconducting phase transitions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity. In the black brane background case, the Little-Parks periodicity is independent of the Gauss-Bonnet parameter, while in the AdS soliton case, there is no evidence for the Little-Parks periodicity. We further study the impact of the Gauss-Bonnet term on the holographic phase transitions quantitatively. The results show that such quantum corrections can effectively affect the occurrence of the phase transitions and the response to the Wilson line.
By using the gauge/gravity duality and the Maldacena prescription we compute the expectation values of the Wilson loops in noncommutative Yang-Mills (NCYM) theory in (3+1) dimensions. We consider both the time-like and the light-like Wilson loops. The gravity dual background is given by a particular decoupling limit of (D1,D3) bound state of type IIB string theory. We obtain the velocity dependent quark-antiquark potential and numerically study how the dipole length and the potential change with velocity (for 0 < v < 1, i.e., the Wilson loop is time-like) of the dipole as well as noncommutativ…
A five-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity theory based on the anti-de Sitter group SO(4,2) is argued to be a useful model in which to understand the details of holography and the relationship between generally covariant and dual local quantum field theories. Defined on a manifold with boundary, conformal geometry arises naturally as a gauge invariance preserving boundary condition. By matching thermodynamic quantities for a particular background geometry, the dimensionless coupling constant of the Chern-Simons theory is directly related to the number of fields in a putative dual theory at high t…
Results for the gravitational Wilson loop, in particular the area law for large loops in the strong coupling region, and the argument for an effective positive cosmological constant discussed in a previous paper, are extended to other proposed theories of discrete quantum gravity in the strong coupling limit. We argue that the area law is a generic feature of almost all non-perturbative lattice formulations, for sufficiently strong gravitational coupling. The effects on gravitational Wilson loops of the inclusion of various types of light matter coupled to lattice quantum gravity are discussed…
We compute the supersymmetric Rényi entropies across a spherical entanglement surface in N=4 SU(N) SYM theory using localization on the four-dimensional ellipsoid. We extract the leading result at large N and λ, and match its universal part to a gravity calculation involving a hyperbolically sliced supersymmetric black hole solution of N=4+ SU(2) X U(1) gauged supergravity in five dimensions. We repeat the analysis in the presence of a Wilson loop insertion and find again a perfect match with the dual string theory. Understanding the Wilson loop operator requires knowledge of the full ten-dime…
A Wilson loop is defined, in 4-D pure Einstein gravity, as the trace of the holonomy of the Christoffel connection or of the spin connection, and its invariance under the symmetry transformations of the action is showed (diffeomorphisms and local Lorentz transformations). We then compute the loop perturbatively, both on a flat background and in the presence of an external source; we also allow some modifications in the form of the action, and test the action of ``stabilized'' gravity. A geometrical analysis of the results in terms of the gauge group of the euclidean theory, $SO(4)$, leads us t…
Holographic entanglement entropy provides a direct connection between classical geometry and quantum entanglement; however the usual prescription does not apply to theories of higher spin gravity, where standard notions of geometry are no longer gauge invariant. We present a proposal for the holographic computation of entanglement entropy in field theories dual to higher spin theories of gravity in AdS3. These theories have a Chern-Simons description, and our proposal involves a Wilson line in an infinite-dimensional representation of the bulk gauge group. In the case of spin-2 gravity such Wi…
Matching Tidal Deformability (Wilson) Coefficients to Black Hole Love Numbers in Higher-Curvature Gravity
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（Perimeter理论物理研究所）；University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista（圣保罗州立大学）；King’s College London（伦敦国王学院）；ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research（国际理论物理研究所南美基础研究所）
We reconsider a gravity dual of a 1/4 BPS Wilson loop. In the case of an expectation value of the Wilson loop, it is known that broken zero modes of a string world sheet in the gravity side play important roles in the limit $λ\to \infty$ with keeping the combination $λ\cos^2 θ_0$ finite. Here, $λ$ is the 't Hooft coupling constant and $θ_0$ is a parameter of the Wilson loop. In this paper, we reconsider a gravity dual of a correlation function between the Wilson loop and a 1/2 BPS local operator with R charge $J$. We take account of contributions coming from the same configurations of the abov…
We analyze the structure of the UV divergences of the Wilson loop for a general gauge/gravity duality. We find that, due to the presence of a nontrivial NSNS B-field and metric, new divergences that cannot be subtracted out by the conventional Legendre transform may arise. We also derive conditions on the B-field and the metric, which when satisfied, the leading UV divergence will become linear, and can be cancelled out by choosing the boundary condition of the string appropriately. Our results, together with the recent result of arXiv:0807.5127, where the effect of a nontrivial dilaton on the…
We study the supersymmetric Wilson loops in the four-dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in the context of AdS/CFT correspondence. In the gauge theory side, it is known that the expectation value of the Wilson loops of circular shape with winding number k is calculable by using a Gaussian matrix model. On the other hand, in the gravity side, it has been conjectured that the expectation value of the Wilson loop is given by the classical value of the action for a probe D3-brane with k electric fluxes. Given such correspondence, we pursue the interpretation of the matrix model eigenvalue dens…
We investigate various aspects of a proposal by Aharony and Kutasov arXiv:0803.3547 [hep-th] for the gravity dual of an open Wilson line in the Sakai-Sugimoto model or its non-compact version. In particular, we use their proposal to determine the effect of finite temperature, as well as background electric and magnetic fields, on the chiral symmetry breaking order parameter. We also generalize their prescription to more complicated worldsheets and identify the operators dual to such worldsheets.
We study the stability of some classical string worldsheet solutions employed for computing the potential energy between two static fundamental quarks in confining and non-confining gravity duals. We discuss the fixing of the diffeomorphism invariance of the string action, its relation with the fluctuation orientation and the interpretation of the quark mass substraction worldsheet needed for computing the potential energy in smooth (confining) gravity background. We consider various dual gravity backgrounds and show by a numerical analysis the existence of instabilities under linear fluctuati…
Realistic heterotic string models require the presence of the Wilson lines. We study the effect of continuous Wilson lines on the heterotic Yukawa couplings and find that the presence of continuous Wilson lines affects the magnitude of the twisted Yukawa couplings resulting in their stronger hierarchy.
The Coulomb and Higgs indices of the 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ $U(N)$ ADHM theories can be decorated by line defect operators as the line defect correlators. We obtain exact closed-form expressions and various non-trivial algebraic relations for the correlators of the Wilson lines in the fundamental and (anti)symmetric representations by means of the Hall-Littlewood expansion, the Fermi-gas method and the residue calculation. From the large $N$ limit of the correlators we obtain the single particle gravity indices which are expected to encode the spectra of fluctuation modes on the gravity duals of l…
In a quantum theory of gravity the gravitational Wilson loop, defined as a suitable quantum average of a parallel transport operator around a large near-planar loop, provides important information about the large-scale curvature properties of the geometry. Here we shows that such properties can be systematically computed in the strong coupling limit of lattice regularized quantum gravity, by performing a local average over rotations, using an assumed near-uniform measure in group space. We then relate the resulting quantum averages to an expected semi-classical form valid for macroscopic obser…
The construction of gravitational Wilson lines in the Chern-Simons formulation of $AdS_3$ gravity in terms of composite operators in the dual boundary conformal field theory is reviewed. New evidence is presented that the Wilson line, dimensionally regularized and suitably renormalized, behaves as a bi-local operator of two conformal primaries whose dimension is predicted by SL(2,R) current algebra.
We first derive the boundary theory from the U(1) Chern-Simons theory. The boundary action on an $n$-sheet manifold appears from its back-reaction of the Wilson line. The reason is that the U(1) Chern-Simons theory can provide an exact effective action when introducing the Wilson line. The Wilson line in the pure AdS$_3$ Einstein gravity is equivalent to entanglement entropy in the boundary theory up to classical gravity. The U(1) Chern-Simons theory deviates by a self-interaction term from the gauge formulation on the boundary. We also compare the Hayward term in the SL(2) Chern-Simons formul…
Aspects of black hole thermodynamics and information loss can be derived as a consequence of Virasoro symmetry. To bolster the connection between Virasoro conformal blocks and AdS$_3$ quantum gravity, we study sl$(2)$ Chern-Simons Wilson line networks and revisit the idea that they compute a variety of CFT$_2$ observables, including Virasoro OPE blocks, exactly. We verify this in the semiclassical large central charge limit and to low orders in a perturbative $1/c$ expansion. Wilson lines connecting the boundary to points in the bulk play a natural role in bulk reconstruction. Because quantum …
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.
JT gravity has a first-order formulation as a two-dimensional BF theory, which can be viewed as the dimensional reduction of the Chern-Simons description of $3d$ gravity. We consider $T\bar{T}$-type deformations of the $(0+1)$-dimensional dual to this $2d$ BF theory and interpret the deformation as a modification of the BF theory boundary conditions. The fundamental observables in this deformed BF theory, and in its $3d$ Chern-Simons lift, are Wilson lines and loops. In the $3d$ Chern-Simons setting, we study modifications to correlators involving boundary-anchored Wilson lines which are induc…
We construct local probes in the static patch of Euclidean dS$_3$ gravity. These probes are Wilson line operators, designed by exploiting the Chern-Simons formulation of 3D gravity. Our prescription uses non-unitary representations of $so(4)\simeq su(2)_L\times su(2)_R$, and we evaluate the Wilson line for states satisfying a singlet condition. We discuss how to reproduce the Green's functions of massive scalar fields in dS$_3$, the construction of bulk fields, and the quasinormal mode spectrum. We also discuss the interpretation of our construction in Lorentzian signature in the inflationary …
We study the relationship between the family number of chiral fermions and the Wilson line phases, based on the orbifold family unification. We find that flavor numbers are independent of the Wilson line phases relating extra-dimensional components of gauge bosons, as far as the standard model gauge symmetry is respected. This feature originates from a hidden quantum-mechanical supersymmetry.
We study N=1 superconformal theory in the context of AdS/CFT correspondence in the large central charge limit using Chern-Simons formulation of $3d$ gravity. In this limit conformal dimensions of a subclass of so-called light primary superfields remain finite and are governed by $\mathfrak{osp}(1|2)$ subalgebra of N=1 super-Virasoro algebra. We describe the construction of $\mathfrak{osp}(1|2)$ conformal blocks in terms of Wilson lines of the Chern-Simons $3d$ gravity. We consider examples of two and three-point blocks on the sphere and one-point torus blocks of light superprimary fields, whic…
We present an algorithm to express Wilson lines that are defined on piecewise linear paths in function of their individual segments, reducing the number of diagrams needed to be calculated. The important step lies in the observation that different linear path topologies can be related to each other using their color structure. This framework allows one to easily switch results between different Wilson line topologies, which is helpful when testing different structures against each other.
We compute the triple pomeron vertex from the Wilson line formalism, including both planar and non-planar contributions, and get perfect agreement with the result obtained in the Extended Generalized Logarithmic Approximation based on reggeon calculus.
We re-derive the R symmetries for the Z6-II orbifold with non-trivial Wilson lines and find expressions for the R charges which differ from those in the literature.
We study torus/orbifold models with magnetic flux and Wilson line background. The number of zero-modes and their profiles depend on those backgrounds. That has interesting implications from the viewpoint of particle phenomenology.
Wilson lines are key objects in many QCD calculations. They are parallel transporters of the gauge field that can be used to render non-local operator products gauge invariant, which is especially useful for calculations concerning validation of factorization schemes and in calculations for constructing or modelling parton density functions. We develop an algorithm to express Wilson lines that are defined on piecewise linear paths in function of their Wilson segments, reducing the number of diagrams needed to be calculated. We show how different linear path topologies can be related using thei…
We investigate four-dimensional N=1 Type IIB orientifolds with continuous Wilson lines, and their T-dual realizations as orientifolds with moving branes. When continuous Wilson lines become discrete the gauge symmetry is enhanced and the T-dual orientifold corresponds to branes sitting at the orbifold fixed points. There is a field theoretic analog describing these phenomena as D- and F-flat deformations of the T-dual model, where the branes sit at the origin (original model without Wilson lines) as well as a deformation of the T-dual model where sets of branes sit at the fixed points (the mod…
We present general formulae to compute Wilson line correlators with the Color Glass Condensate described by the McLerran-Venugopalan model. We explicitly construct a complete and non-orthogonal set of color-singlet bases and write matrix elements down, so that the exponential of the matrix leads to the Wilson line correlators. We further develop a systematic perturbative expansion of dipole Wilson line correlators in terms of $1/N_c$ where $N_c$ is the color number. As a phenomenological application we calculate the flow harmonics $v_n\{m\}$ in the dipole model and discuss the $N_c$ scaling.
We study the stabilization of an extra-dimensional radius in the presence of a Wilson line phase of an extra $U(1)$ gauge symmetry on a five-dimensional space-time, using the effective potential relating both the radion and the Wilson line phase at the one-loop level. We find that the radion can be stabilized by the introduction of a small number of fermions.
Finding diffeomorphism-invariant observables to characterize the properties of gravity and spacetime at the Planck scale is essential for making progress in quantum gravity. The holonomy and Wilson loop of the Levi-Civita connection are potentially interesting ingredients in the construction of quantum curvature observables. Motivated by recent developments in nonperturbative quantum gravity, we establish new relations in three and four dimensions between the holonomy of a finite loop and certain curvature integrals over the surface spanned by the loop. They are much simpler than a gravitation…
The Kerr-Schild double copy relates exact solutions of gauge and gravity theories. In all previous examples, the gravity solution is associated with an abelian-like gauge theory object, which linearises the Yang-Mills equations. This appears to be at odds with the double copy for scattering amplitudes, in which the non-abelian nature of the gauge theory plays a crucial role. Furthermore, it is not yet clear whether or not global properties of classical fields - such as non-trivial topology - can be matched between gauge and gravity theories. In this paper, we clarify these issues by explicitly…
We formulate a holographic Wilsonian renormalization group flow for strongly coupled systems with a gravity dual, motivated by the need to extract efficiently low energy behavior of such systems. Starting with field theories defined on a cut-off surface in a bulk spacetime, we propose that integrating out high energy modes in the field theory should correspond to integrating out a part of the bulk geometry. We describe how to carry out this procedure in practice in the classical gravity approximation using examples of scalar and vector fields. By integrating out bulk degrees of freedom all the…
In the Randall-Sundrum compactification of AdS$_5$ with detuned brane tensions, supersymmetry can be spontaneously broken by a non-trivial Wilson line for the graviphoton. The supersymmetry breaking vanishes in the tuned limit. This effect is equivalent to supersymmetry breaking by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions.
We derive a nonperturbative expression for the non-vacuum, qqbar-Reggeon-exchange contribution to the meson-meson elastic scattering amplitude at high energy and low momentum transfer, in the framework of QCD. Describing the mesons in terms of colourless qqbar dipoles, the problem is reduced to the two-fermion-exchange contribution to the dipole-dipole scattering amplitudes, which is expressed as a path integral, over the trajectories of the exchanged fermions, of the expectation value of a certain Wilson loop. We also show how the resulting expression can be reconstructed from a corresponding…
We provide a recursive diagrammatic prescription for the exponentiation of gauge theory amplitudes involving products of Wilson lines and loops. This construction generalizes the concept of webs, originally developed for eikonal form factors and cross sections with two eikonal lines, to general soft functions in QCD and related gauge theories. Our coordinate space arguments apply to arbitrary paths for the lines.
Wilson lines, being comparators that render non-local operator products gauge invariant, are extensively used in QCD calculations, especially in small-$x$ calculations, calculations concerning validation of factorisation schemes and in calculations for constructing or modelling parton density functions. We develop an algorithm to express piecewise path ordered exponentials as path ordered integrals over the separate segments, and apply it on linear segments, reducing the number of diagrams needed to be calculated. We show how different linear path topologies can be related using their colour s…
We study the flavor structure of 4D effective theories, which are derived from extra dimensional theories with magnetic fluxes and non-Abelian Wilson lines. We study zero-mode wavefunctions and compute Yukawa couplings as well as four-point couplings. In our models, we also discuss non-Abelian discrete flavor symmetries such as $D_4$, $Δ(27)$ and $Δ(54)$.
We study the dual gravity description of supersymmetric Wilson loops whose expectation value is unity. They are described by calibrated surfaces that end on the boundary of anti de-Sitter space and are pseudo-holomorphic with respect to an almost complex structure on an eight-dimensional slice of AdS_5 x S^5. The regularized area of these surfaces vanishes, in agreement with field theory non-renormalization theorems for the corresponding operators.
We investigate the appearance of straight infinite Wilson lines lying on the self-dual plane in the context of the Self Dual sector of the Yang Mills theory and in a connection to the Lagrangian implementing the MHV vertices (MHV Lagrangian) according to the Cachazo-Svrcek-Witten method. It was already recognized in the past by two of the authors, that such Wilson line functional provides the field transformation of positive helicity fields between the Yang-Mills theory on the light-cone and the MHV Lagrangian. Here we discuss in detail the connection to the Self Dual sector and we provide a n…
We consider six-dimensional supergravity compactified on orbifolds with Wilson lines and bulk flux. Torus Wilson lines are decomposed into Wilson lines around the orbifold fixed points, and twisted boundary conditions of matter fields are related to fractional localized flux. Both, orbifold singularities and flux lead to chiral fermions in four dimensions. We show that in addition to the standard bulk and fixed point anomalies the Green-Schwarz term also cancels the four-dimensional anomaly induced by the flux background. The two axions contained in the antisymmetric tensor field both contribu…
We propose an exact quantization of two-dimensional Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity by formulating the JT gravity theory as a 2D gauge theory placed in the presence of a loop defect. The gauge group is a certain central extension of $PSL(2, \mathbb{R})$ by $\mathbb{R}$. We find that the exact partition function of our theory when placed on a Euclidean disk matches precisely the finite temperature partition function of the Schwarzian theory. We show that observables on both sides are also precisely matched: correlation functions of boundary-anchored Wilson lines in the bulk are given by those of…
We explicitly construct the fully back-reacted half-BPS solutions in Type IIB supergravity which are dual to Wilson loops with 16 supersymmetries in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills. In a first part, we use the methods of a companion paper to derive the exact general solution of the half-BPS equations on the space $AdS_2 \times S^2 \times S^4 \times Σ$, with isometry group $SO(2,1)\times SO(3) \times SO(5)$ in terms of two locally harmonic functions on a Riemann surface $Σ$ with boundary. These solutions, generally, have varying dilaton and axion, and non-vanishing 3-form fluxes. In a second p…
