We analyze the partition function of two dimensional Yang-Mills theory on a family of surfaces of infinite genus. These surfaces have a recursive structure, which was used by one of us to compute the partition function that results in a generalized Migdal formula. In this paper we study the `small area' (weak coupling) expansion of the partition function, by exploiting the fact that the generalized Migdal formula is analytic in the (complexification of the) Euler characteristic. The structure of the perturbative part of the weak coupling expansion suggests that the moduli space of flat connections (of the SU(2) and SO(3) theories) on these infinite genus surfaces are well defined, perhaps in an appropriate regularization.
The partition function of Euclidean Yang-Mills theory on two dimensional surfaces is given by the Migdal formula. It involves the area and topological characteristics of the surface. We consider this theory on a class of infinite genus surfaces that are constructed recursively. We make use of this recursive structure to compute the partition functions (with or without additional Wilson loops) on such surfaces. Our method also works for the quantum deformed Yang-Mills theory.
The recursive calculation of Selberg integrals by Aomoto and Terasoma using the Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equation and the Drinfeld associator makes use of an auxiliary point and facilitates the recursive evaluation of string amplitudes at genus zero: open-string N-point amplitudes can be obtained from those at N-1 points. We establish a similar formalism at genus one, which allows the recursive calculation of genus-one Selberg integrals using an extra marked point in a differential equation of Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov-Bernard type. Hereby genus-one Selberg integrals are related to genus-zero Selbe…
We examine the topologically twisted index of $\mathcal N=4$ super-Yang-Mills with gauge group $SU(N)$ on $T^2\times S^2$, and demonstrate that it receives contributions from multiple sectors corresponding to the freely acting orbifolds $T^2/\mathbb Z_m\times\mathbb Z_n$ where $N=mn$. After summing over these sectors, the index can be expressed as the elliptic genus of a two-dimensional $\mathcal N=(0,2)$ theory resulting from Kaluza-Klein reduction on $S^2$. This provides an alternate path to the 'high-temperature' limit of the index, and confirms the connection to the right-moving central ch…
We consider the partition function of super Yang-Mills theories defined on $T^2 \times Σ_g$. This path integral can be computed by the localization. The one-loop determinant is evaluated by the elliptic genus. This elliptic genus gives trivial result in our calculation. As a result, we obtain a theory defined on the Riemann surface.
We explore and exploit the relation between non-planar correlators in ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills, and higher-genus closed string amplitudes in type IIB string theory. By conformal field theory techniques we construct the genus-one, four-point string amplitude in AdS$_5\times S^5$ in the low-energy expansion, dual to an ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills correlator in the 't Hooft limit at order $1/c^2$ in a strong coupling expansion. In the flat space limit, this maps onto the genus-one, four-point scattering amplitude for type II closed strings in ten dimensions. Using this approach we reproduc…
We study the large $N$ 't Hooft expansion of the partition function of 2d $U(N)$ Yang-Mills theory on a torus. We compute the $1/N$ genus expansion of both the chiral and the full partition function of 2d Yang-Mills using the recursion relation found by Kaneko and Zagier with a slight modification. Then we study the large order behavior of this genus expansion, from which we extract the non-perturbative correction using the resurgence relation. It turns out that the genus expansion is not Borel summable and the coefficient of 1-instanton correction, the so-called Stokes parameter, is pure imag…
We study factorizations of topological string amplitudes on higher genus Riemann surfaces with multiple boundary components and find quantum A-infinity relations, which are the higher genus analog of the (classical) A-infinity relations on the disk. For topological strings with $\hat c=3$ the quantum A-infinity relations are trivially satisfied on a single D-brane, whereas in a multiple D-brane configuration they may be used to compute open higher genus amplitudes recursively from disk amplitudes. This can be helpful in open Gromov--Witten theory in order to determine open string higher genus …
In this paper we discuss the hyperelliptic curve for $N=2$ $SU(3)$ super Yang-Mills with six flavors of hypermultiplets. We start with a generic genus two surface and construct the curve in terms of genus two theta functions. From this one can construct the curve for $m_i=u=0$. This curve is explicitly dual under a subgroup of $Sp(4,Z)$ which is not isomorphic to $Sp(2,Z)$. We then proceed to construct the curve for the general $SU(3)$ theory and discuss the duality properties of the theory. The results given here differ from those given previously.
This is a summary of old work on connections between discrete area preserving diffeomorphisms, reduced SU(N) Yang-Mills, strings, and the quantum Hall effect on a Riemann surface of genus g. It is submitted to the archives due to the interest expressed by colleagues who are currently working on matrix models, and who could not have access to the proceedings in which the article was published. The text that follows is the version published in 1991.
We present a recursive method for super Yang-Mills color-ordered n-point tree amplitudes based on the cohomology of pure spinor superspace in ten space-time dimensions. The amplitudes are organized into BRST covariant building blocks with diagrammatic interpretation. Manifestly cyclic expressions (no longer than one line each) are explicitly given up to n=10 and higher leg generalizations are straightforward.
We study non-planar correlators in ${\cal N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills in Mellin space. We focus in the stress tensor four-point correlator to order $1/N^4$ and in a strong coupling expansion. This can be regarded as the genus-one four-point graviton amplitude of type IIB string theory on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ in a low energy expansion. Both the loop supergravity result as well as the tower of stringy corrections have a remarkable simple structure in Mellin space, making manifest important properties such as the correct flat space limit and the structure of UV divergences.
Recently, Berenstein et al. have proposed a duality between a sector of N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory with large R-charge J, and string theory in a pp-wave background. In the limit considered, the effective 't Hooft coupling has been argued to be lambda'=g_{YM}^2 N/J^2=1/(mu p^+ alpha')^2. We study Yang-Mills theory at small lambda' (large mu) with a view to reproducing string interactions. We demonstrate that the effective genus counting parameter of the Yang-Mills theory is g_2^2=J^4/N^2=(4 pi g_s)^2 (mu p^+ alpha')^4, the effective two-dimensional Newton constant for strings propagating on th…
We review the generalization of the work of Seiberg and Witten on N=2 supersymmetric SU(2) Yang-Mills theory to SU(n) gauge groups. The quantum moduli spaces of the effective low energy theory parametrize a special family of hyperelliptic genus n-1 Riemann surfaces. We discuss the massless spectrum and the monodromies.
We analyze in detail the recursive construction of the Seiberg-Witten map and give an exhaustive description of its ambiguities. The local BRST cohomology for noncommutative Yang-Mills theory is investigated in the framework of the effective commutative Yang-Mills type theory. In particular, we show how some of the conformal symmetries get obstructed by the noncommutative deformation.
We study the BRST renormalization of an alternative formulation of the Yang-Mills theory, where the matrix-propagator of the gluon and the complementary fields is diagonal. This procedure involves scalings as well as non-linear mixings of the fields and sources. We show, in the Landau gauge, that the BRST identities implement a recursive proof of renormalizability to all orders.
We examine the renormalization of the first order formulation of Yang-Mills theory, by using the BRST idenities. These preserve the gauge invariance of the theory and enable a recursive proof of renormalizability to higher orders in perturbation theory. The renormalization involves non-linear mixings as well as re-scalings of the fields and sources, which lead to a renormalized action at all orders.
We give a new description of classical Yang-Mills theory by coupling a two-dimensional chiral CFT (which gives the tree-level S-matrix of Yang-Mills theory at genus zero) to a background non-abelian gauge field. The resulting model is solvable, and when the gravitational degrees of freedom are decoupled the non-linear Yang-Mills equations are imposed as an exact worldsheet anomaly cancellation condition. When gravitational modes are reinstated, we find gauge anomalies analogous to those appearing in heterotic string theory.
In this paper, we investigate the expansion of tree level multitrace Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) amplitudes. First, we propose two types of recursive expansions of tree level EYM amplitudes with an arbitrary number of gluons, gravitons and traces by those amplitudes with fewer traces or/and gravitons. Then we give many support evidence, including proofs using the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formula and Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) recursive relation. As a byproduct, two types of generalized BCJ relations for multitrace EYM are further proposed, which will be useful in the BCFW proof. After one ap…
A residue formula which evaluates any correlation function of topological $SU_n$ Yang-Mills theory with arbitrary magnetic flux insertion in two dimensions are obtained. Deformations of the system by two form operators are investigated in some detail. The method of the diagonalization of a matrix valued field turns out to be useful to compute various physical quantities. As an application we find the operator that contracts a handle of a Riemann surface and a genus recursion relation.
We further elaborate on the general construction proposed in arXiv:1812.03369, which connects, via tree-level double copy, massless string amplitudes with color-ordered QFT amplitudes that are given by Cachazo-He-Yuan formulas. The current paper serves as a detailed study of the integration-by-parts procedure for any tree-level massless string correlator outlined in the previous letter. We present two new results in the context of heterotic and (compactified) bosonic string theories. First, we find a new recursive expansion of any multitrace mixed correlator in these theories into a logarithmi…
The large-N limit of the two-dimensional non-local U$(N)$ Yang-Mills theory on an orientable and non-orientable surface with boundaries is studied. For the case which the holonomies of the gauge group on the boundaries are near the identity, $U\simeq I$, it is shown that the phase structure of these theories is the same as that obtain for these theories on orientable and non-orientable surface without boundaries, with same genus but with a modified area $V+\hat{A}$.
We propose a novel modular anomaly equation for the unflavored Schur index in the $\mathcal{N}=4$ $SU(N)$ super-Yang-Mills theory. The vanishing conditions overdetermine the modular ambiguity ansatz from the equation, thus together they are sufficient to recursively compute the exact Schur indices for all $SU(N)$ gauge groups. Using the representations as MacMahon's generalized sum-of-divisors functions and Jacobi forms, we then prove our proposal as well as elucidate a general formula conjectured by Pan and Peelaers.
In this letter, we present a formal solution to the non-linear field equations of ten-dimensional super Yang--Mills theory. It is assembled from products of linearized superfields which have been introduced as multiparticle superfields in the context of superstring perturbation theory. Their explicit form follows recursively from the conformal field theory description of the gluon multiplet in the pure spinor superstring. Furthermore, superfields of higher mass dimensions are defined and their equations of motion spelled out.
Using the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formalism, we prove a recursive expansion of tree level single trace Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) amplitudes with arbitrary number of gluons and gravitons, which is valid for general spacetime dimensions and any helicity configurations. The recursion is written in terms of fewer-graviton EYM amplitudes and pure Yang-Mills (YM) amplitudes, which can be further carried out until we reach an expansion in terms of pure YM amplitudes in Kleiss-Kuijf (KK) basis. Our expansion then generates naturally a spanning tree structure rooted on gluons whose vertices are gravitons…
We consider the matrix model approach to the anomalous dimension matrix in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang--Mills theory. We construct the path integral representation for the anomalous dimension density matrix and analyze the resulting action. In particular, we consider the large $N$ limit, which results in a classical field theory. Since the same limit leads to spin chains, we propose to consider the former as an alternative description of the latter. We consider also the limit of small $N$, which corresponds to the restriction to the diagrams of maximal topological genus.
Yang-Mills tree-level amplitudes contain singularities of codimension one like collinear and multi-particle factorizations, codimension two such as soft limits, as well as higher codimension singularities. Traditionally, BCFW-like deformations with one complex variable were used to explore collinear and multi-particle channels. Higher codimension singularities need more complex variables to be reached. In this paper, along with a discussion on higher singularities and the role of the global residue theorem in this analysis, we specifically consider soft singularities. This is done by extending…
The background gauge renormalization of the first order formulation of the Yang-Mills theory is studied by using the BRST identities. Together with the background symmetry, these identities allow for an iterative proof of renormalizability to all orders in perturbation theory. However, due to the fact that certain improper diagrams which violate the BRST symmetry should be removed, the renormalizability must be deduced indirectly. The recursive method involves rescalings and mixings of the fields, which lead to a renormalized effective action for the background field theory.
In this article, we compute the topological expansion of all possible mixed-traces in a hermitian two matrix model. In other words we give a recipe to compute the number of discrete surfaces of given genus, carrying an Ising model, and with all possible given boundary conditions. The method is recursive, and amounts to recursively cutting surfaces along interfaces. The result is best represented in a diagrammatic way, and is thus rather simple to use.
Symmetries of Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) amplitudes, together with the recursive expansions, induce nontrivial identities for pure Yang-Mills amplitudes. In the previous work \cite{Hou:2018bwm}, we have already proven that the identities induced from tree level single-trace EYM amplitudes can be precisely expanded in terms of BCJ relations. In this paper, we extend the discussions to those identities induced from all tree level \emph{multi-trace} EYM amplitudes. Particularly, we establish a refined graphic rule for multi-trace EYM amplitudes and then show that the induced identities can be full…
Three-dimensional Yang-Mills theory is investigated in the Hamiltonian formalism based on the Karabali-Nair variable. A new algorithm is developed to obtain the renormalized Hamiltonian by identifying local counterterms in Lagrangian with the use of fictitious holomorphic symmetry existing in the framework with the KN variable. Our algorithm is totally algebraic and enables one to calculate the ground state wave functional recursively in gauge potentials. In particular, the Gaussian part thus calculated is shown to coincide with that obtained by Leigh et al. Higher-order corrections to the Gau…
The large-N limit of the two-dimensional U$(N)$ Yang-Mills theory on an arbitrary orientable compact surface with boundaries is studied. It is shown that if the holonomies of the gauge field on boundaries are near the identity, then the critical behavior of the system is the same as that of an orientable surface without boundaries with the same genus but with a modified area. The diffenece between this effective area and the real area of the surface is obtained and shown to be a function of the boundary conditions (holonomies) only. A similar result is shown to hold for the group SU$(N)$ and o…
A new, recursive method of calculating matrix elements of polynomial hamiltonians is proposed. It is particularly suitable for the recent algebraic studies of the supersymmetric Yang-Mills quantum mechanics in any dimensions. For the D=2 system with the SU(2) gauge group, considered here, the technique gives exact, closed expressions for arbitrary matrix elements of the hamiltonian and of the supersymmetric charge, in the occupation number representation. Subsequent numerical diagonalization provides the spectrum and restricted Witten index of the system with very high precision (taking into a…
We consider the four-point function of the stress tensor multiplet superprimary in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills (SYM) with gauge group $SU(N)$ in the large $N$ and large 't Hooft coupling $λ\equiv g_\text{YM}^2N$ limit, which is holographically dual to the genus expansion of IIB string theory on $AdS_5\times S^5$. In \cite{Binder:2019jwn} it was shown that the integral of this correlator is related to derivatives of the mass deformed $\mathcal{N}=2^*$ sphere free energy, which was computed using supersymmetric localization to leading order in $1/N^2$ for finite $λ$. We generalize this comp…
We propose an integrability setup for the computation of correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at higher orders in the large $N_{\text{c}}$ genus expansion and at any order in the 't Hooft coupling $g_{\text{YM}}^2N_{\text{c}}$. In this multi-step proposal, one polygonizes the string worldsheet in all possible ways, hexagonalizes all resulting polygons, and sprinkles mirror particles over all hexagon junctions to obtain the full correlator. We test our integrability-based conjecture against a non-planar four-point correlator of l…
We construct the complete (planar and non-planar) integrand for the six-loop four-point amplitude in maximal $D\le10$ super-Yang-Mills. This construction employs new advances that combat the proliferation of diagram contributions and state sums when evaluating multi-loop $D$-dimensional unitarity cuts. Concretely, we introduce two graph-based approaches to evaluating generalized unitarity cuts in $D$ dimensions: 1) recursively from lower-loop cuts, or 2) directly from known higher-loop planar cuts. Neither method relies on explicit state sums or any sewing of tree-level amplitudes. These metho…
In this note we summarize some of the results found recently in hep-th/0609054. We show the pure discretness of the non-perturbative quantum spectrum of a symplectic Yang-Mills theory defined on a Riemann surface of positive genus, living in a target space that, in particular, can be 4D. This theory corresponds to the membrane with central charges. The presence of the central charge induces a confinement in the phase at zero temperature. When the energy rises, the center of the group breaks and the theory enters in a quark-plasma phase after a topological transition, corresponding to the N=4 w…
We consider the two-loop four-point amplitude in N=2 super QED, and show that there exists an approximate recursive structure similar to that captured by the ABDK/BDS ansatz for MHV amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills. Furthermore, we present a simple relation between the box coefficients of one-loop photon MHV amplitudes in (super) QED, and sums of box coefficients of one-loop MHV amplitudes in (super) Yang-Mills.
We present a first step towards generalizing the work of Seiberg and Witten on N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory to arbitrary gauge groups. Specifically, we propose a particular sequence of hyperelliptic genus $n-1$ Riemann surfaces to underly the quantum moduli space of $SU(n)$ N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory. These curves have an obvious generalization to arbitrary simply laced gauge groups, which involves the A-D-E type simple singularities. To support our proposal, we argue that the monodromy in the semiclassical regime is correctly reproduced. We also give some remarks on a possible re…
In this paper, we provide a thorough study on the expansion of single trace Einstein-Yang-Mills amplitudes into linear combination of color-ordered Yang-Mills amplitudes, from various different perspectives. Using the gauge invariance principle, we propose a recursive construction, where EYM amplitude with any number of gravitons could be expanded into EYM amplitudes with less number of gravitons. Through this construction, we can write down the complete expansion of EYM amplitude in the basis of color-ordered Yang-Mills amplitudes. As a byproduct, we are able to write down the polynomial form…
We carry out further analysis of the Hamiltonian approach to Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions which helps to place the calculation of the vacuum wave function and the string tension in the context of a systematic expansion scheme. The solution of the Schrodinger equation is carried out recursively. The computation of correlators is re-expressed in terms of a two-dimensional chiral boson theory. The effective action for this theory is calculated to first order in our expansion scheme and to the fourth order in a kinematic expansion parameter. The resulting corrections to the string tension a…
Using the double-copy construction of Yang-Mills-Einstein theories formulated in our earlier work, we obtain compact presentations for single-trace Yang-Mills-Einstein tree amplitudes with up to five external gravitons and an arbitrary number of gluons. These are written as linear combinations of color-ordered Yang-Mills trees, where the coefficients are given by color/kinematics-satisfying numerators in a Yang-Mills+ϕ^3 theory. The construction outlined in this paper holds in general dimension and extends straightforwardly to supergravity theories. For one, two, and three external gravitons, …
We show that the genus 34 Seiberg-Witten curve underlying $N=2$ Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $E_6$ yields physically equivalent results to the manifold obtained by fibration of the $E_6$ ALE singularity. This reconciles a puzzle raised by $N=2$ string duality.
We study the relationship between instanton counting in N=4 Yang-Mills theory on a generic four-dimensional toric orbifold and the semi-classical expansion of q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on the blowups of the minimal resolution of the orbifold singularity, with an eye to clarifying the recent proposal of using two-dimensional gauge theories to count microstates of black holes in four dimensions. We describe explicitly the instanton contributions to the counting of D-brane bound states which are captured by the two-dimensional gauge theory. We derive an intimate relationship between the two-di…
We introduce a BCFW shift which can be used to recursively build the full Yang-Mills tree-level amplitude as a function of polarization vectors. Furthermore, in line with the recent results of arXiv:1612.02797, we conjecture that the Yang-Mills tree-level scattering amplitude is uniquely fixed by locality and demanding the usual asymptotic behavior under a sufficient number of shifts. Unitarity therefore emerges from locality and constructability. We prove this statement at the leading order in the soft expansion.
We study the large-$N$ dynamics of $T\bar{T}$-deformed two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory at genus zero. The 1/$N$-expansion of the free energy is obtained by exploiting the associated flow equation and the complete phase diagram of the theory is derived for both signs of the rescaled deformation parameter $τ$. We observe a third-order phase transition driven by instanton condensation, which is the deformed version of the familiar Douglas-Kazakov transition separating the weakly-coupled from the strongly-coupled phase. By studying said phases, we compute the deformation of both the perturbative…
We study N=2 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group SU(N) from the point of view of the Whitham hierarchy. We develop a new recursive method to compute the whole instanton expansion of the prepotential using the theta function associated to the root lattice of the group. Explicit results for the one and two-instanton corrections in SU(N) are presented. Interpreting the slow times of the hierarchy as additional couplings, we show how they can be promoted to spurion superfields that softly break N=2 supersymmetry down to N=0. This provides a family of nonsupersymmetric deformations of the theo…
We study the system of M2-branes suspended between parallel M5-branes using ABJM model with a natural half-BPS boundary condition. For small separation between M5-branes, the worldvolume theory is shown to reduce to a 2D N=(4,4) super Yang-Mills theory with some similarity to q-deformed Yang-Mills theory. The gauge coupling is related to the position of the branes in an interesting manner. The theory is considerably different from the 2D theory proposed for multiple "M-strings". We make a detailed comparison of elliptic genus of the two descriptions and find only a partial agreement.
We study the $T\bar{T}$ deformation of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory at genus zero by carrying out the analysis at the level of its instanton representation. We first focus on the perturbative sector by considering its power expansion in the deformation parameter $μ$. By studying the resulting asymptotic series through resurgence theory, we determine the nonperturbative contributions that enter the result for $μ<0$. We then extend this analysis to any flux sector by solving the relevant flow equation. Specifically, we impose boundary conditions corresponding to two distinct regimes: the qu…
The canonical recursive Dyson--Schwinger equations for the three-gluon and ghost-gluon vertices are solved numerically. The employed truncation includes several previously neglected diagrams and includes back-coupling effects. We find an infrared finite ghost-gluon vertex and an infrared diverging three-gluon vertex. We also compare our results with those obtained in previous calculations, where bare vertices were used in the loop diagrams.
The octagon function is the fundamental building block yielding correlation functions of four large BPS operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory at any value of the 't Hooft coupling and at any genus order. Here we compute the octagon at strong coupling, and discuss various interesting limits and implications, both at the planar and non-planar level.
We review recent work on the study of N=2 super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group SU(N) from the point of view of the Whitham hierarchy, mainly focusing on three main results: (i) We develop a new recursive method to compute the whole instanton expansion of the low-energy effective prepotential; (ii) We interpret the slow times of the hierarchy as additional couplings and promote them to spurion superfields that softly break N=2 supersymmetry down to N=0 through deformations associated to higher Casimir operators of the gauge group; (iii) We show that the Seiberg-Witten-Whitham equations prov…
We determine the exact vacuum structure of a marginal deformation of N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills with gauge group U(N). The Coulomb branch of the theory consists of several sub-branches which are governed by complex curves of the form Sigma_{n_{1}} U Sigma_{n_{2}} U Sigma_{n_{3}} of genus N=n_{1}+n_{2}+n_{3}. Each sub-branch intersects with a family of Higgs and Confining branches permuted by SL(2,Z) transformations. We determine the curve by solving a related matrix model in the planar limit according to the prescription of Dijkgraaf and Vafa, and also by explicit instanton calculations using a form …
Classical three dimensional Yang-Mills is seen to be related to the topological Chern-Simons term through a nonlinear but fully local and covariant gauge field redefinition. A classical recursive cohomological argument is provided.
