Large charges on the Wilson loop in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 SYM: matrix model and classical string

Abstract

<jats:title>A<jats:sc>bstract</jats:sc> </jats:title><jats:p>We study the large charge sector of the defect CFT defined by the half-BPS Wilson loop in planar <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Specifically, we consider correlation functions of two large charge insertions and several light insertions in the double-scaling limit where the ’t Hooft coupling <jats:italic>λ</jats:italic> and the large charge <jats:italic>J</jats:italic> are sent to infinity, with the ratio <jats:italic>J/</jats:italic><jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math>$$ \sqrt{\lambda } $$</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mi>λ</mml:mi> </mml:msqrt> </mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula> held fixed. They are holographically dual to the expectation values of light vertex operators on a classical string solution with large angular momentum, which we evaluate in the leading large <jats:italic>J</jats:italic> limit. We also compute the two-point function of large charge insertions by evaluating the on-shell string action, supplemented by the boundary terms that generalize the one introduced by Drukker, Gross and Ooguri for the Wilson loop without insertions. For a special class of correlation functions, we reproduce the string results from field theory by using supersymmetric localization. The results are given by correlation functions in an “emergent” matrix model whose matrix size is proportional to <jats:italic>J</jats:italic> and whose spectral curve coincides with that of the classical string. Similar matrix models appeared in the study of extremal correlators in rank-1 <jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math>$$ \mathcal{N} $$</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula> = 2 superconformal field theories, but our results hold also for non-extremal cases.</jats:p>