2000/03/08 by Joel K. Erickson, J. K. Erickson, G. W. Semenoff +2 · 3 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Combinatorics #Conjecture #Constant (computer programming) #Coupling (piping) #Coupling constant #Gauge theory #Loop (graph theory) #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Order (exchange) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum mechanics #Supergravity #Supersymmetry #Wilson loop #Yang–Mills theory #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0550-3213(00)00300-x
published as Nucl.Phys. B582 (2000) 155-175 · 24 pages, LaTeX, uses feynmp, 12 postscript figures
arxiv created 2000/03/08 · openalex publication_date 2000/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2019/04/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Perturbative computations of the expectation value of the Wilson loop in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory are reported. For the two special cases of a circular loop and a pair of anti-parallel lines, it is shown that the sum of an infinite class of ladder-like planar diagrams, when extrapolated to strong coupling, produces an expectation value characteristic of the results of the AdS/CFT correspondence, <W>∼exp((constant)√(g2N)). For the case of the circular loop, the sum is obtained analytically for all values of the coupling. In this case, the constant factor in front of √(g2N) also agrees with the supergravity results. We speculate that the sum of diagrams without internal vertices is exact and support this conjecture by showing that the leading corrections to the ladder diagrams cancel identically in four dimensions. We also show that, for arbitrary smooth loops, the ultraviolet divergences cancel to order g4N2.