Instantons on ALE spaces and Super Liouville Conformal Field Theories

We provide evidence that the conformal blocks of N=1 super Liouville conformal field theory are described in terms of the SU(2) Nekrasov partition function on the ALE space O_{P^1}(-2).Comment: 10 page

Structure constants of planar N =4 Yang Mills at one loop

We study structure constants of gauge invariant operators in planar N=4 Yang-Mills at one loop with the motivation of determining features of the string dual of weak coupling Yang-Mills. We derive a simple renormalization group invariant formula characterizing the corrections to structure constants of any primary operator in the planar limit. Applying this to the scalar SO(6) sector we find that the one loop corrections to structure constants of gauge invariant operators is determined by the one loop anomalous dimension Hamiltonian in this sector. We then evaluate the one loop corrections to structure constants for scalars with arbitrary number of derivatives in a given holomorphic direction. We find that the corrections can be characterized by suitable derivatives on the four point tree function of a massless scalar with quartic coupling. We show that individual diagrams violating conformal invariance can be combined together to restore it using a linear inhomogeneous partial differential equation satisfied by this function.Comment: 52 pages, 12 figures, Typos fixed, reference adde

Towards a string bit formulation of N=4 super Yang-Mills

We show that planar cal N=4 Yang-Mills theory at zero 't Hooft coupling can be efficiently described in terms of 8 bosonic and 8 fermionic oscillators. We show that these oscillators can serve as world-sheet variables, the string bits, of a discretized string. There is a one to one correspondence between the on shell gauge invariant words of the free Y-M theory and the states in the oscillators' Hilbert space, obeying a local gauge and cyclicity constraints. The planar two-point functions and the three-point functions of all gauge invariant words are obtained by the simple delta-function overlap of the corresponding discrete string world sheet. At first order in the 't Hooft coupling, i.e. at one-loop in the Y-M theory, the logarithmic corrections of the planar two-point and the three-point functions can be incorporated by nearest neighbour interactions among the discretized string bits. In the SU(2) sub-sector we show that the one-loop corrections to the structure constants can be uniquely determined by the symmetries of the bit picture. For the SU(2) sub-sector we construct a gauged, linear, discrete world-sheet model for the oscillators, with only nearest neighbour couplings, which reproduces the anomalous dimension Hamiltonian up to two loops. This model also obeys BMN scaling to all loops.Comment: 64 pages, 6 figures, typos fixed, references adde

Correlation functions, null polygonal Wilson loops, and local operators

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 recursion relation for such correlators. Finally, we study the natural extension where n operators become pairwise null separated with k operators in general position. As an example, we perform an analysis of the resulting correlator for k=2 and discuss some of the difficulties associated to fixing the correlator completely in the strong coupling regime.Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures. v2: typos corrected and references added; v3: published versio

On correlation functions of Wilson loops, local and non-local operators

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.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure

Gravitational F-terms of N=1 Supersymmetric SU(N) Gauge Theories

We use the generalized Konishi anomaly equations and R-symmetry anomaly to compute the exact perturbative and non-perturbative gravitational F-terms of four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories. We formulate the general procedure for computation and consider chiral and non-chiral SU(N) gauge theories.Comment: 25 pages, v2: minor changes in section 4, references adde

Large spin systematics in CFT

20 pages; v2: version published in JHEPUsing conformal field theory (CFT) arguments we derive an infinite number of constraints on the large spin expansion of the anomalous dimensions and structure constants of higher spin operators. These arguments rely only on analiticity, unitarity, crossing-symmetry and the structure of the conformal partial wave expansion. We obtain results for both, perturbative CFT to all order in the perturbation parameter, as well as non-perturbatively. For the case of conformal gauge theories this provides a proof of the reciprocity principle to all orders in perturbation theory and provides a new "reciprocity" principle for structure constants. We argue that these results extend also to non-conformal theories.Peer reviewe

Wilson Loops @ 3-Loops in Special Kinematics

We obtain a compact expression for the octagon MHV amplitude / Wilson loop at 3 loops in planar N=4 SYM and in special 2d kinematics in terms of 7 unfixed coefficients. We do this by making use of the cyclic and parity symmetry of the amplitude/Wilson loop and its behaviour in the soft/collinear limits as well as in the leading term in the expansion away from this limit. We also make a natural and quite general assumption about the functional form of the result, namely that it should consist of weight 6 polylogarithms whose symbol consists of basic cross-ratios only (and not functions thereof). We also describe the uplift of this result to 10 points.Comment: 26 pages. Typos correcte

Gravitational F-terms of N=1 Supersymmetric Gauge Theories

We consider four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories in a supergravity background. We use generalized Konishi anomaly equations and R-symmetry anomaly to compute the exact perturbative and non-perturbative gravitational F-terms. We study two types of theories: The first model breaks supersymmetry dynamically, and the second is based on a $G_2$ gauge group. The results are compared with the corresponding vector models. We discuss the diagrammatic expansion of the $G_2$ theory.Comment: LaTeX2e, 23 pages, 2 figures. Added a reference and converted into JHEP styl

On Fermionic T-duality of Sigma modes on AdS backgrounds

We study the fermionic T-duality symmetry of integrable Green-Schwarz sigma models on AdS backgrounds. We show that the sigma model on $AdS_5\times S^1$ background is self-dual under fermionic T-duality. We also construct new integrable sigma models on $AdS_2\times CP^n$. These backgrounds could be realized as supercosets of SU supergroups for arbitrary $n$, but could also be realized as supercosets of OSp supergroups for $n=1,3$. We find that the supercosets based on SU supergroups are self-dual under fermionic T-duality, while the supercosets based on OSp supergroups are not. However, the reasons of OSp supercosets being not self-dual under fermionic T-duality are different. For $OSp(6|2)$ case, corresponding to $AdS_2\times CP^3$ background, the failure is due to the singular fermionic quadratic terms, just like $AdS_4\times CP^3$ case. For $OSp(3|2)$ case, the failure is due to the shortage of right number of $\kappa$-symmetry to gauge away the fermionic degrees of freedom, even though the fermionic quadratic term is not singular any more. More general, for the supercosets of the OSp supergroups with superalgebra $B(n,m)$, including $AdS_2\times S^{2n}$ and $AdS_4\times S^{2n}$ backgrounds, the sigma models are not self-dual under fermionic T-duality as well, obstructed by the $\kappa$-symmetry.Comment: 17 pages; Clarfications on kappa symmetries, references added;Published versio