Higher Rank Wilson Loops in N = 2* Super-Yang-Mills Theory

by Xinyi Chen (NORDITA)

Monday 20 Apr 2015, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

122:026

The N=2* Super-Yang-Mills theory (SYM) arises as a deformation of N=4 SYM wherein the adjoint hypermultiplet acquires a mass, breaking conformal symmetry and half the supersymmetries. The localization technique reduces the partition function of the N=2* theory to an effective matrix model, where an infinite sequence of large-N quantum phase transitions are observed. In this seminar, I will focus on the expectation values of Wilson loops in k-symmetric and antisymmetric representations of the SU(N) gauge group in this theory, and show that the same phenomenon that causes the phase transitions at finite coupling leads to a non-analytic dependence of Wilson loops on k/N when the coupling is strictly infinite, thus making the higher-representation Wilson loops ideal holographic probes of the non-trivial phase structure of N=2* SYM. Ref: 1502.01942