Composite operators and form factors in N=4 SYM

We construct the most general composite operators of N = 4 SYM in Lorentz harmonic chiral ($\approx$ twistor) superspace. The operators are built from the SYM supercurvature which is nonpolynomial in the chiral gauge prepotentials. We reconstruct the full nonchiral dependence of the supercurvature. We compute all tree-level MHV form factors via the LSZ redcution procedure with on-shell states made of the same supercurvature.Comment: 32 page

On a Large N Degeneracy in N=4 SYM and the AdS/CFT Correspondence

We study the four-point correlator of 1/2-BPS operators of weight 4 in N=4 SYM, which are dual to massive KK modes in AdS_5 supergravity. General field-theoretic arguments lead to a partially non-renormalized form of the amplitude that depends on two a priori independent functions of the conformal cross-ratios. We explicitly compute the amplitude in the large N limit at one loop (order g^2) and in AdS_5 supergravity. Surprisingly, the one-loop result shows that the two functions determining the amplitude coincide while in the supergravity regime they are distinctly different. We discuss the possible implications of this perturbative degeneracy for the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures, LaTex, the Summary and Conclusions section extended, references adde

N=4 super-Yang-Mills in LHC superspace. Part I: Classical and quantum theory

We present a formulation of the maximally supersymmetric N=4 gauge theory in Lorentz harmonic chiral (LHC) superspace. It is closely related to the twistor formulation of the theory but employs the simpler notion of Lorentz harmonic variables. They parametrize a two-sphere and allow us to handle efficiently infinite towers of higher-spin auxiliary fields defined on ordinary space-time. In this approach the chiral half of N=4 supersymmetry is manifest. The other half is realized non-linearly and the algebra closes on shell. We give a straightforward derivation of the Feynman rules in coordinate space. We show that the LHC formulation of the N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory is remarkably similar to the harmonic superspace formulation of the N=2 gauge and hypermultiplet matter theories. In the twin paper arXiv:1601.06804 we apply the LHC formalism to the study of the non-chiral multipoint correlation functions of the N=4 stress-tensor supermultiplet.Comment: 51 pages, 4 figures; v2: Appendix B on the propagators in momentum space added. A more detailed comparison with the twistor approach given in Appendix

Demystifying the twistor construction of composite operators in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory

We explain some details of the construction of composite operators in N=4 SYM that we have elaborated earlier in the context of Lorentz harmonic chiral (LHC) superspace. We give a step-by-step elementary derivation and show that the result coincides with the recent hypothesis put forward in arXiv:1603.04471 within the twistor approach. We provide the appropriate LHC-to-twistors dictionary.Comment: 10 page

Short representations of SU(2,2/N) and harmonic superspace analyticity

We consider the harmonic superspaces associated to SU(2,2/N) superconformal algebras. For arbitrary N, we show that massless representations, other than the chiral ones, correspond to [N/2] ``elementary'' ultrashort analytic superfields whose first component is a scalar in the k antisymmetric irrep of SU(N) (k=1... [N/2]) with top spin $J_{\rm\scriptsize top}= (N/2-k/2,0)$. For N=2n we analyze UIR's obtained by tensoring the self-conjugate ultrashort multiplet $J_{\rm\scriptsize top}$= (n/2,0) and show that N-1 different basic products give rise to all possible UIR's with residual shortening.Comment: references adde

Conformal primaries of OSp(8/4,R) and BPS states in AdS4

We derive short UIR's of the OSp(8/4,R) superalgebra of 3d N=8 superconformal field theories by the requirement that the highest weight states are annihilated by a subset of the super-Poincare odd generators. We then find a superfield realization of these BPS saturated UIR's as "composite operators" of the two basic ultrashort "supersingleton" multiplets. These representations are the AdS4 analogue of BPS states preserving different fractions of supersymmetry and are therefore suitable to classify perturbative and non-perturbative excitations of M-theory compactifications.Comment: refrences adde

Representations of (1,0) and (2,0) superconformal algebras in six dimensions: massless and short superfields

We construct unitary representations of (1,0) and (2,0) superconformal algebras in six dimensions by using superfields defined on harmonic superspaces with coset manifolds USp(2n)/[U(1)]^n, n=1,2. In the spirit of the AdS_7/CFT_6 correspondence massless conformal fields correspond to "supersingletons" in AdS_7. By tensoring them we produce all short representations corresponding to 1/2 and 1/4 BPS anti-de Sitter bulk states of which "massless bulk" representations are particular cases.Comment: references adde

Superconformal interpretation of BPS states in AdS geometries

We carry out a general analysis of the representations of the superconformal algebras SU(2,2/N), OSp(8/4,R) and OSp(8^*/4) and give their realization in superspace. We present a construction of their UIR's by multiplication of the different types of massless superfields ("supersingletons"). Particular attention is paid to the so-called "short multiplets". Representations undergoing shortening have "protected dimension" and correspond to BPS states in the dual supergravity theory in anti-de Sitter space. These results are relevant for the classification of multitrace operators in boundary conformally invariant theories as well as for the classification of AdS black holes preserving different fractions of supersymmetry.Comment: The sections on 6 and 3 dimensions considerably extended; important new references added; misprints correcte