Abstract
We address a longstanding question of whether ABJM theory has Wilson loop operators preserving eight supercharges (so 1/3 BPS). We present such Wilson loops made of a large supermatrix combining two 1/2 BPS Wilson loops. We study the spectrum of operator insertions into them including the displacement operator and several others and study their correlation functions. Another natural construction arising in this context are Wilson loops with alternating superconnections. This amounts to including “defect changing operators” along the loop, similar to a discrete cusp. This insertion is topological and preserves two supercharges. We study the multiplet of this operator and how it can be used to introduce further operators. We also construct the defect conformal manifold arising from marginal defect operators.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge related collaboration with M. Probst, M. Tenser and D. Trancanelli. We are also grateful to G. Bliard, G. Papadopoulos, M. Preti, S. Salamon, V. Schomerus and P. Soresina for extremely useful discussions. ND is supported by STFC under the grants ST/T000759/1 and ST/P000258/1 and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958. The work of ZK is supported by CSC grant No. 201906340174. ND would like to thank École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB, the DESY theory group and Humboldt University for their hospitality in the course of this work. ZK would like to thank T. Fiol, the University of Barcelona, the DESY theory group and Humboldt University for their hospitality.
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Drukker, N., Kong, Z. 1/3 BPS loops and defect CFTs in ABJM theory. J. High Energ. Phys. 2023, 137 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2023)137
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2023)137