Published in:

Physical Review D 77,12 (2008)

Abstract

We consider rigid rotating closed strings with spikes in AdS(5) dual to certain higher twist operators in N=4 SYM theory. In the limit of large spin when the spikes reach the boundary of AdS(5), the solutions with different numbers of spikes are related by conformal transformations, implying that their energy is determined by the same function of the 't Hooft coupling f(lambda) that appears in the anomalous dimension of twist 2 operators or in the cusp anomaly. In the limit when the number of spikes goes to infinity, we find an equivalent description in terms of a string moving in an AdS pp-wave background. From the boundary theory point of view, the corresponding description is based on the gauge theory living in a 4d pp-wave space. Then, considering a charge moving at the speed of light, or a null Wilson line, we find that the integrated energy-momentum tensor has a logarithmic UV divergence that we call the "pp-wave anomaly." The AdS/CFT correspondence implies that, for N=4 SYM, this pp-wave anomaly should have the same value as the cusp anomaly. We verify this at lowest order in SYM perturbation theory. As a side result of our string theory analysis, we find new open string solutions in the Poincare patch of the standard AdS space which end on a lightlike Wilson line and also in two parallel lightlike Wilson lines at the boundary.

Keywords

Astronomy & Astrophysics;; Physics, Particles & Fields

Date of this Version

January 2008

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.