Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory Research Articles

Flattening of the EFT-hedron: supersymmetric positivity bounds and the search for string theory

We examine universal positivity constraints on 2 → 2 scattering in 4d planar N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with higher-derivative corrections. We present numerical evidence that the convex region of allowed Wilson coefficients (the “EFT-hedron”) flattens completely along about one-third of its dimensions when an increasing number of constraints on the spectral density from crossing-symmetry are included. Our analysis relies on the formulation of the positivity constraints as a linear optimization problem, which we implement using two numerical solvers, SDPB and CPLEX. Motivated by the flattening, we propose a novel partially resummed low-energy expansion of the 2 → 2 amplitude. As part of the analysis, we provide additional evidence in favor of the conjecture [1] that the Veneziano amplitude is the only amplitude compatible with both S-matrix bootstrap constraints and string monodromy.

Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening

We study the rich dynamics resulting from introducing static charged particles (Wilson lines) in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensional gauge theories. Depending on the charges of the external particles, there may be multiple defect fixed points with interesting renormalization group flows connecting them, or an exponentially large screening cloud can develop (defining a new emergent length scale), screening the bare charge entirely or partially. We investigate several examples where the dynamics can be solved in various weak coupling or double scaling limits. Sometimes even the elementary Wilson lines, corresponding to the lowest nontrivial charge, are screened. We consider Wilson lines in 3+1 dimensional gauge theories including massless scalar and fermionic QED4, and also in the N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We also consider Wilson lines in 2+1 dimensional conformal gauge theories such as QED3 with bosons or fermions, Chern-Simons-Matter theories, and the effective theory of graphene. Our results in 2+1 dimensions have potential implications for graphene, second-order superconducting phase transitions, etc. Finally, we comment on magnetic line operators in 3+1 dimensions (’t Hooft lines) and argue that our results for the infrared dynamics of electric and magnetic lines are consistent with non-Abelian electric-magnetic duality.

Gauge theory on twist-noncommutative spaces

We construct actions for four dimensional noncommutative Yang-Mills theory with star-gauge symmetry, with non-constant noncommutativity, to all orders in the noncommutativity. Our construction covers all noncommutative spaces corresponding to Drinfel’d twists based on the Poincaré algebra, including nonabelian ones, whose r matrices are unimodular. This includes particular Lie-algebraic and quadratic noncommutative structures. We prove a planar equivalence theorem for all such noncommutative field theories, and discuss how our actions realize twisted Poincaré symmetry, as well as twisted conformal and twisted supersymmetry, when applicable. Finally, we consider noncommutative versions of maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, conjectured to be AdS/CFT dual to certain integrable deformations of the AdS5 × S5 superstring.

Mixed state entanglement measures for the dipole deformed supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory

Two different entanglement measures for mixed states, namely, the entanglement of purification and entanglement negativity has been holographically computed for the dipole deformed supersymmetric Yang–Mills (SYM) theory by considering its gravity dual. The dipole deformation induces non-locality in the SYM theory which is characterized by a length-scale a=λ12L̃. Considering a strip like subsystem of length la (in dimensionless form), we first analytically calculate the holographic entanglement entropy for and compare the obtained results with that of obtained numerically. The analytical calculations have been carried out by considering aut≤1, 1≤aut<aub and aut∼aub, where aub is the UV cut-off. The choice of these regions enable us to identify the expansion parameters needed to carry out binomial expansions. The entanglement measures expectedly displays a smooth behaviour with respect to the subsystem size as the geometry has a smooth transition between the mentioned regions. Using these results, the holographic mutual information is then computed for two disjoint subsystems A and B. Based upon the EP=EW duality, the entanglement of purification (EP) is then computed and the effects of dipole deformation in this context have been studied. Finally, we proceed to compute entanglement negativity for this theory and compare the obtained result with that of the standard SYM theory in order to get a better understanding about the effects of the non-locality.

Single-soft emissions for amplitudes with two colored particles at three loops

We compute the three-loop correction to the universal single-soft emission current for the case of scattering amplitudes with two additional color-charged partons. We present results valid for QCD and N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 super-symmetric Yang-Mills theory. To achieve our results we develop a new integrand expansion technique for scattering amplitudes in the presence of soft emissions. Furthermore, we obtain contributions from single final-state parton matrix elements to the Higgs boson and Drell-Yan production cross section at next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to leading order (N4LO) in perturbative QCD in the threshold limit.

Double-copying self-dual Yang-Mills theory to self-dual gravity on twistor space

We construct a simple Lorentz-invariant action for maximally supersymmetric self-dual Yang-Mills theory that manifests colour-kinematics duality. We also show that this action double-copies to a known action for maximally supersymmetric self-dual gravity. Both actions live on twistor space and illustrate nicely the homotopy algebraic perspective on the double copy presented in [1]. This example is particularly interesting as the involved Hopf algebra controlling the momentum dependence is non-commutative and suggests a generalisation to gauged maximally supersymmetric self-dual gravity.

Stark effect and dissociation of mesons in holographic conductor

We study the meson spectrum of the N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 fundamental hypermultiplets for a finite electric field by using the D3/D7 model. The spectrum for scalar and vector mesons is computed by analyzing the (quasi-)normal modes for the fluctuations of the D7-brane embedding and gauge fields. In the presence of an electric field, two different phases in the background are realized: the meson and dissociation phases. In this paper, we analyze the meson spectrum of scalar and vector mesons for all ranges of the electric field and explore the effect of the electric field on the meson spectrum, that is, the Stark effect. In the meson spectrum, we observe the avoided crossing between different levels due to the coupling of fluctuations via the electric field.

Two string theory flavours of generalised Eisenstein series

Generalised Eisenstein series are non-holomorphic modular invariant functions of a complex variable, τ, subject to a particular inhomogeneous Laplace eigenvalue equation on the hyperbolic upper-half τ-plane. Two infinite classes of such functions arise quite naturally within different string theory contexts. A first class can be found by studying the coefficients of the effective action for the low-energy expansion of type IIB superstring theory, and relatedly in the analysis of certain integrated four-point functions of stress tensor multiplet operators in N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. A second class of such objects is known to contain all two-loop modular graph functions, which are fundamental building blocks in the low-energy expansion of closed-string scattering amplitudes at genus one. In this work, we present a Poincaré series approach that unifies both classes of generalised Eisenstein series and manifests certain algebraic and differential relations amongst them. We then combine this technique with spectral methods for automorphic forms to find general and non-perturbative expansions at the cusp τ → i∞. Finally, we find intriguing connections between the asymptotic expansion of these modular functions as τ → 0 and the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function.

Witten index in 4D supersymmetric gauge theories

We present a review of Witten index calculations in different supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions: supersymmetric electrodynamics, pure [Formula: see text] supersymmetric Yang–Mills (SYM) theories and also SYM theories including matter multiplets — both with chirally symmetric and asymmetric content.

Beyond AdS2/dCFT1: insertions in two Wilson loops

We consider two-point correlators of local operator insertions in a system of two Wilson-Maldacena loops in N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on both sides of the AdS/CFT correspondence. On the holographic side the correlator of two Wilson-Maldacena loops is given by a classical string world-sheet which in one phase connects two asymptotically AdS2 regions and in the other phase is given by two disconnected AdS2 caps; this configuration breaks supersymmetry as well as conformal invariance. We present a complete systematic account of the string world-sheet fluctuations, including the fermionic sector, and study the behavior of the holographic two-point correlators. On the field theory side we compute certain two-point correlators of local operator insertions by resumming sets of ladder diagrams. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of previously developed methods in tackling this non-conformal, non-susy regime.

Peculiarities of beta functions in sigma models

In this paper we consider perturbation theory in generic two-dimensional sigma models in the so-called first-order formalism, using the coordinate regularization approach. Our goal is to analyze the first-order formalism in application to β functions and compare its results with the standard geometric calculations. Already in the second loop, we observe deviations from the geometric results that cannot be explained by the regularization/renormalization scheme choices. Moreover, in certain cases the first-order calculations produce results that are not symmetric under the classical diffeomorphisms of the target space. Although we could not present the full solution to this remarkable phenomenon, we found some indirect arguments indicating that an anomaly similar to that established in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory might manifest itself starting from the second loop. We discuss why the difference between two answers might be an infrared effect, similar to that in β functions in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories.In addition to the generic Kähler target spaces we discuss in detail the so-called Lie-algebraic sigma models. In particular, this is the case when the perturbed field Gij¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {G}^{i\\overline{j}} $$\\end{document} is a product of the holomorphic and antiholomorphic currents satisfying two-dimensional current algebra.

Exceptionally simple integrated correlators in N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

Supersymmetric localisation has led to several modern developments in the study of integrated correlators in N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory. In particular, exact results have been derived for certain integrated four-point functions of superconformal primary operators in the stress tensor multiplet which are valid for all classical gauge groups, SU(N), SO(N), and USp(2N), and for all values of the complex coupling, τ = θ/(2π) + 4πi/gYM2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {g}_{YM}^2 $$\\end{document}. In this work we extend this analysis and provide a unified two-dimensional lattice sum representation valid for all simple gauge groups, in particular for the exceptional series Er (with r = 6, 7, 8), F4 and G2. These expressions are manifestly covariant under Goddard-Nuyts-Olive duality which for the cases of F4 and G2 is given by particular Fuchsian groups. We show that the perturbation expansion of these integrated correlators is universal in the sense that it can be written as a single function of three parameters, called Vogel parameters, and a suitable ’t Hooft-like coupling. To obtain the perturbative expansion for the integrated correlator with a given gauge group we simply need substituting in this single universal expression specific values for the Vogel parameters. At the non-perturbative level we conjecture a formula for the one-instanton Nekrasov partition function valid for all simple gauge groups and for general Ω-deformation background. We check that our expression reduces in various limits to known results and that it produces, via supersymmetric localisation, the same one-instanton contribution to the integrated correlator as the one derived from the lattice sum representation. Finally, we consider the action of the hyperbolic Laplace operator with respect to τ on the integrated correlators with exceptional gauge groups and derive inhomogeneous Laplace equations very similar to the ones previously obtained for classical gauge groups.

Quadratic Twist-Noncommutative Gauge Theory.

Studies of noncommutative gauge theory have mainly focused on noncommutative spacetimes with constant noncommutative structure, with little known about actions for noncommutative 4D Yang-Mills theory beyond this case. We construct an action for Yang-Mills theory on a quadratically noncommutative spacetime, i.e., of quantum-plane type, obtained from a Drinfeld twist, with star-gauge symmetry. Applied to supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, this gives a candidate AdS/CFT dual of string theory on a related deformation of AdS_{5}×S^{5}, which is expected to be integrable in the planar limit.

Quantized strings and instantons in holography

We study worldsheet instantons in holographic type IIA backgrounds directly in string theory. The first background is a dimensional reduction of AdS7 × S4 and is dual to the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on S5. The second background is AdS4 × CP3 dual to ABJM in the type IIA limit. We compute the one-loop partition function of the fundamental string in these backgrounds and show that the result is in exact agreement with field theory predictions. We argue that for higher rank instantons, the string partition function takes a product form of the single instanton partition function times the contribution of two orbifolds on the worldsheet. We determine the orbifold factor to be n−3/2 where n is the instanton rank. With this result, we reproduce the series of non-perturbative corrections in α′ to the planar S5 free energy. When studying the worldsheet instanton partition function on CP3, we encounter twelve fermionic and twelve bosonic zero modes. By deforming the ABJM theory, the zero-modes are lifted and consequently the tower of worldsheet instantons can be evaluated and matched to known results in the QFT. As a by-product, we determine a series of higher rank instanton corrections to the free energy of the mass-deformed and orbifolded ABJ(M) theory.

Generating functions and large-charge expansion of integrated correlators in \U0001d4a9 = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

We recently proved that, when integrating out the spacetime dependence with a certain integration measure, four-point correlators leftlangle {mathcal{O}}_2{mathcal{O}}_2{mathcal{O}}_p^{(i)}{mathcal{O}}_p^{(i)}rightrangle in \U0001d4a9 = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with SU(N) gauge group are governed by a universal Laplace-difference equation. Here {mathcal{O}}_p^{(i)} is a superconformal primary with charge p and degeneracy i. These physical observables, called integrated correlators, are modular-invariant functions of Yang-Mills coupling τ. The Laplace-difference equation is a recursion relation that relates integrated correlators of operators with different charges. In this paper, we introduce the generating functions for these integrated correlators that sum over the charge. By utilising the Laplace-difference equation, we determine the generating functions for all the integrated correlators, in terms of the initial data of the recursion relation. We show that the transseries of the integrated correlators in the large-p (i.e. large-charge) expansion for a fixed N consists of three parts: 1) is independent of τ, which behaves as a power series in 1/p, plus an additional log(p) term when i = j; 2) is a power series in 1/p, with coefficients given by a sum of the non-holomorphic Eisenstein series; 3) is a sum of exponentially decayed modular functions in the large-p limit, which can be viewed as a generalisation of the non-holomorphic Eisenstein series. When i = j, there is an additional modular function of τ that is independent of p and is fully determined in terms of the integrated correlator with p = 2. The Laplace-difference equation was obtained with a reorganisation of the operators that means the large-charge limit is taken in a particular way here. From these SL(2, ℤ)-invariant results, we also determine the generalised ’t Hooft genus expansion and the associated large-p non-perturbative corrections of the integrated correlators by introducing λ = p {g}_{YM}^2 . The generating functions have subtle differences between even and odd N, which have important consequences in the large-charge expansion and resurgence analysis. We also consider the generating functions of the integrated correlators for some fixed p by summing over N, and we study their large-N behaviour, as well as comment on the similarities and differences between the large-p expansion and the large-N expansion.

Baryonic states in mathbf {{mathcal {N}}=1} supersymmetric SU(2) Yang–Mills theory on the lattice

We extend our analysis of bound states in {mathcal {N}}=1 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory by the consideration of baryonic operators, which are composed of three gluino fields. The corresponding states are similar to the baryons in QCD, but due to the difference between gluino and quark fields, their properties and the fermion line contractions involved in their correlation functions are different from QCD. In this work, we first explain the derivation of these operators and the contractions needed in numerical calculations of their correlators. In contrast to QCD the correlators contain a spectacle piece, which requires methods for all-to-all propagators. We provide a first estimate of the two-point function and the mass of the lightest baryonic state in {mathcal {N}}=1 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory.

Celestial Supersymmetry

We discuss supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory coupled to dilatons in the framework of celestial holography. We show that in the presence of point-like dilaton sources, the CCFT operators associated with the gauge supermultiplet acquire a simple, factorized form. They factorize into the holomorphic (super)current part and the exponential “light” operators of Liouville theory, in the infinite central charge limit. The current sector exhibits (1,0) supersymmetry, thus implementing spacetime supersymmetry in CCFT.

Laplace-difference equation for integrated correlators of operators with general charges in mathcal{N} = 4 SYM

We consider the integrated correlators associated with four-point correlation functions leftlangle {mathcal{O}}_2{mathcal{O}}_2{mathcal{O}}_p^{(i)}{mathcal{O}}_p^{(j)}rightrangle in four-dimensional mathcal{N} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory (SYM) with SU(N) gauge group, where {mathcal{O}}_p^{(i)} is a superconformal primary with charge (or dimension) p and the superscript i represents possible degeneracy. These integrated correlators are defined by integrating out spacetime dependence with a certain integration measure, and they can be computed via supersymmetric localisation. They are modular functions of complexified Yang-Mills coupling τ. We show that the localisation computation is systematised by appropriately reorganising the operators. After this reorganisation of the operators, we prove that all the integrated correlators for any N, with some crucial normalisation factor, satisfy a universal Laplace-difference equation (with the laplacian defined on the τ-plane) that relates integrated correlators of operators with different charges. This Laplace-difference equation is a recursion relation that completely determines all the integrated correlators, once the initial conditions are given.

Chromoelectric field correlator for quarkonium transport in the strongly coupled mathcal{N} = 4 Yang-Mills plasma from AdS/CFT

Previous studies have shown that a gauge-invariant correlation function of two chromoelectric fields connected by a straight timelike adjoint Wilson line encodes crucial information about quark-gluon plasma (QGP) that determines the dynamics of small-sized quarkonium in the medium. Motivated by the successes of holographic calculations to describe strongly coupled QGP, we calculate the analog gauge-invariant correlation function in strongly coupled mathcal{N} = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature by using the AdS/CFT correspondence. Our results indicate that the transition processes between bound and unbound quarkonium states are suppressed in strongly coupled plasmas, and moreover, the leading contributions to these transition processes vanish in both the quantum Brownian motion and quantum optical limits of open quantum system approaches to quarkonia.

Does a Quark-Gluon Plasma Feature an Extended Hydrodynamic Regime?

We investigate the response of the near-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma (QGP) to perturbation at nonhydrodynamic gradients. We propose a conceivable scenario under which sound mode continues to dominate the medium response in this regime. Such a scenario has been observed experimentally for various liquids and liquid metals. We further show that this extended hydrodynamic regime (EHR) indeed exists for both the weakly coupled kinetic equation in the relaxation time approximation (RTA) and the strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory. We construct a simple but nontrivial extension of Müller-Israel-Stewart (MIS) theory-namely MIS*-and demonstrate that it describes the EHR response for both the RTA and SYM theory. This indicates that MIS* equations can potentially be employed to search for QGP EHR via heavy-ion collisions.