Semi-classical open string corrections and symmetric Wilson loops

In the AdS/CFT correspondence, an AdS_2 x S^2 D3-brane with electric flux in AdS_5 x S^5 spacetime corresponds to a circular Wilson loop in the symmetric representation or a multiply wound one in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. In order to distinguish the symmetric loop and the multiply wound loop, one should see an exponentially small correction in large 't Hooft coupling. We study semi-classically the disk open string attached to the D3-brane. We obtain the exponent of the term and it agrees with the result of the matrix model calculation of the symmetric Wilson loop.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. v2: explanation improved. v3: argument in section 2 is improved, result not change

A prediction for bubbling geometries

We study the supersymmetric circular Wilson loops in N=4 Yang-Mills theory. Their vacuum expectation values are computed in the parameter region that admits smooth bubbling geometry duals. The results are a prediction for the supergravity action evaluated on the bubbling geometries for Wilson loops.Comment: 21 pages, latex; v.2 reference added; v.3 minor correction

Wilson Loops, Geometric Transitions and Bubbling Calabi-Yau's

Motivated by recent developments in the AdS/CFT correspondence, we provide several alternative bulk descriptions of an arbitrary Wilson loop operator in Chern-Simons theory. Wilson loop operators in Chern-Simons theory can be given a description in terms of a configuration of branes or alternatively anti-branes in the resolved conifold geometry. The representation of the Wilson loop is encoded in the holonomy of the gauge field living on the dual brane configuration. By letting the branes undergo a new type of geometric transition, we argue that each Wilson loop operator can also be described by a bubbling Calabi-Yau geometry, whose topology encodes the representation of the Wilson loop. These Calabi-Yau manifolds provide a novel representation of knot invariants. For the unknot we confirm these identifications to all orders in the genus expansion.Comment: 26 pages; v.2 typos corrected, explanations clarified; v.3 typos corrected, reference adde

BIons in topological string theory

When many fundamental strings are stacked together, they puff up into D-branes. BIons and giant gravitons are the examples of such D-brane configurations that arise from coincident strings. We propose and demonstrate analogous transitions in topological string theory. Such transitions can also be understood in terms of the Fourier transform of D-brane amplitudes.Comment: 21 pages; v.2 references added; v.3 reference added; v.4 minor corrections; v.5 substantial rewritin

D-branes as a Bubbling Calabi-Yau

We prove that the open topological string partition function on a D-brane configuration in a Calabi-Yau manifold X takes the form of a closed topological string partition function on a different Calabi-Yau manifold X_b. This identification shows that the physics of D-branes in an arbitrary background X of topological string theory can be described either by open+closed string theory in X or by closed string theory in X_b. The physical interpretation of the ''bubbling'' Calabi-Yau X_b is as the space obtained by letting the D-branes in X undergo a geometric transition. This implies, in particular, that the partition function of closed topological string theory on certain bubbling Calabi-Yau manifolds are invariants of knots in the three-sphere.Comment: 32 pages; v.2 reference adde

Vortex loop operators, M2-branes and holography

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/archiveprefix: arXiv primaryclass: hep-th reportnumber: HU-EP-08-43 slaccitation: %%CITATION = ARXIV:0810.4344;%%archiveprefix: arXiv primaryclass: hep-th reportnumber: HU-EP-08-43 slaccitation: %%CITATION = ARXIV:0810.4344;%

Bubbling Defect CFT's

We study the gravitational description of conformal half-BPS domain wall operators in N=4 SYM, which are described by defect CFT's. These defect CFT's arise in the low energy limit of a Hanany-Witten like brane setup and are described in a probe brane approximation by a Karch-Randall brane configuration. The gravitational backreaction takes the five-branes in AdS_5xS^5 through a geometric transition and turns them into appropriate fluxes which are supported on non-trivial three-spheres.Comment: 32 pages, latex, 4 figures, 2 references adde

Correlation Functions of Coulomb Branch Operators

We consider the correlation functions of Coulomb branch operators in four-dimensional N=2 Superconformal Field Theories (SCFTs) involving exactly one anti-chiral operator. These extremal correlators are the "minimal" non-holomorphic local observables in the theory. We show that they can be expressed in terms of certain determinants of derivatives of the four-sphere partition function of an appropriate deformation of the SCFT. This relation between the extremal correlators and the deformed four-sphere partition function is non-trivial due to the presence of conformal anomalies, which lead to operator mixing on the sphere. Evaluating the deformed four-sphere partition function using supersymmetric localization, we compute the extremal correlators explicitly in many interesting examples. Additionally, the representation of the extremal correlators mentioned above leads to a system of integrable differential equations. We compare our exact results with previous perturbative computations and with the four-dimensional tt^* equations. We also use our results to study some of the asymptotic properties of the perturbative series expansions we obtain in N=2 SQCD.Comment: 47 pages, 6 figures. v2: typos corrected and references adde

M2-Branes and Background Fields

We discuss the coupling of multiple M2-branes to the background 3-form and 6-form gauge fields of eleven-dimensional supergravity, including the coupling of the Fermions. In particular we show in detail how a natural generalization of the Myers flux-terms, along with the resulting curvature of the background metric, leads to mass terms in the effective field theory.Comment: 19 page

Holographic Gauge Theories in Background Fields and Surface Operators

We construct a new class of supersymmetric surface operators in N=4 SYM and find the corresponding dual supergravity solutions. We show that the insertion of the surface operator - which is given by a WZW model supported on the surface - appears by integrating out the localized degrees of freedom along the surface which arise microscopically from a D3/D7 brane intersection. Consistency requires constructing N=4 SYM in the D7 supergravity background and not in flat space. This enlarges the class of holographic gauge theories dual to string theory backgrounds to gauge theories in non-trivial supergravity backgrounds. The dual Type IIB supergravity solutions we find reveal - among other features - that the holographic dual gauge theory does indeed live in the D7-brane background.Comment: 42 pages, harvmac, corrected typo