Iberian Strings Meetings 

17/01/2017, 17:30 — 18:00 — Abreu Faro Amphitheatre
Troels Harmark, Niels Bohr Institute

Interacting Giant Gravitons from Spin Matrix theory

The overall theme of this talk is whether one can find a unifying framework that can connect the gauge and string theory sides of the AdS/CFT correspondence, thus enabling one to quantitatively connect the two sides. This would enable one to study quantitatively how space, time and gravity emerge from a quantum theory. In the planar regime, the integrable spin chain provides such a unifying framework but it cannot be used beyond planar gauge theory and tree-level string theory. Our proposal is that Spin Matrix theory provides a unifying framework near certain unitarity bounds, enabling one to access finite-$N$ effects. We give evidence for this by matching non-supersymmetric dynamics of D-branes on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ to a finite-$N$ regime in $N=4$ SYM near a unitarity bound. In particular, we find an effective matrix model that describes the dynamics of weakly interacting giant gravitons wrapped on three-spheres in the AdS part of $AdS_5 \times S^5$ at high energies using the non-abelian DBI action. In parallel we consider the limit of $N=4$ SYM near a certain unitarity bound where it reduces to the quantum mechanical theory called $SU(2)$ Spin Matrix theory. We show that the exact same matrix model that describes the giant gravitons on the string theory side also provides the effective description in the strong coupling and large energy limit of the Spin Matrix theory.

See also

Talk Lisbon Jan 2017_harmark.pdf