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Impure aspects of supersymmetric Wilson loops

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Abstract

We study a general class of supersymmetric Wilson loops operator in \( \mathcal{N} \) = 4 super Yang-Mills theory, obtained as orbits of conformal transformations. These loops are the natural generalization of the familiar circular Wilson-Maldacena operator and their supersymmetric properties are encoded into a Killing spinor that is not pure. We present a systematic analysis of their scalar couplings and of the preserved supercharges, modulo the action of the global symmetry group, both in the compact and in the non-compact case. The quantum behavior of their expectation value is also addressed, in the simplest case of the Lissajous contours: explicit computations at weak-coupling, through Feynman diagrams expansion, and at strong-coupling, by means of AdS/CFT correspondence, suggest the possibility of an exact evaluation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze and INFN — Sezione di Firenze, Via G. Sansone 1, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

    Valentina Cardinali & Domenico Seminara

  2. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Parma and INFN — Gruppo Collegato di Parma, Viale G.P. Usberti 7/A, 43100, Parma, Italy

    Luca Griguolo

Authors
  1. Valentina Cardinali
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  2. Luca Griguolo
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  3. Domenico Seminara
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Correspondence to Domenico Seminara.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1202.6393

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Cardinali, V., Griguolo, L. & Seminara, D. Impure aspects of supersymmetric Wilson loops. J. High Energ. Phys. 2012, 167 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2012)167

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2012)167

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