Leading quantum correction to energy of ‘short’ spiky strings

Abstract

We consider semiclassical quantization of spiky strings spinning in the AdS3 part of AdS5 × S5 using an integrability-based (algebraic curve) method. In the ‘short-string’ (small-spin) limit the expansion of string energy starts with its flat-space expression. We compute the leading quantum string correction to ‘short’ spiky string energy and find the explicit form of the corresponding one-loop coefficient a01. It turns out to be rational and expressed in terms of the harmonic sums as functions of the number n of spikes. In the special case of n = 2 when the spiky string reduces to the single-folded spinning string, the coefficient a01 takes the value (−1/4) found in Gromov et al (2011 J. High Energy Phys. JHEP08(2011)046). We also consider a similar computation for the m-folded string and more general spiky string with an extra ‘winding’ number, finding similar expressions for a01. These results may be useful for a description of energies of higher excited states in the quantum AdS5 × S5 string spectrum, generalizing earlier discussions of the string counterparts of the Konishi operator.