Strings on conifolds from strong coupling dynamics, part I

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to analyze strong coupling dynamics of superconformal field theories dual to AdS geometries, using semi-classical configurations and effective N=4 SYM dynamics, enabling calculations matching AdS results.

Contribution

It proposes a self-consistent approach to study strong coupling regimes of superconformal theories from first principles, connecting field theory and string theory results.

Findings

Computed string energies in the BMN limit from field theory

Matched field theory results with AdS geometry predictions

Developed a semi-classical framework for superconformal field theories

Abstract

A method to solve various aspects of the strong coupling expansion of the superconformal field theory duals of AdS_5 x X geometries from first principles is proposed. The main idea is that at strong coupling the configurations that dominate the low energy dynamics of the field theory compactified on a three sphere are given by certain non-trivial semi-classical configurations in the moduli space of vacua. We show that this approach is self-consistent and permits one to express most of the dynamics in terms of an effective N=4 SYM dynamics. This has the advantage that some degrees of freedom that move the configurations away from moduli space can be treated perturbatively, unifying the essential low energy dynamics of all of these theories. We show that with this formalism one can compute the energies of strings in the BMN limit in the Klebanov-Witten theory from field theory considerations, matching the functional form of results found using AdS geometry. This paper also presents various other technical results for the semiclassical treatment of superconformal field theories.