Topics in Cusped/Lightcone Wilson Loops

TL;DR

This paper reviews various approaches to understanding cusped and lightcone Wilson loops within the string/gauge duality, focusing on perturbative calculations in SYM theory and the cusped loop equation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of both old and new methods for analyzing cusped/lightcone Wilson loops, emphasizing two-loop perturbation theory and the loop equation.

Findings

Two-loop perturbative results for SYM Wilson loops

Insights into the cusped loop equation

Comparison of different theoretical approaches

Abstract

I review several old/new approaches to the string/gauge correspondence for the cusped/lightcone Wilson loops. The main attention is payed to SYM perturbation theory calculations at two loops and beyond and to the cusped loop equation. These three introductory lectures were given at the 48 Cracow School of Theoretical Physics: "Aspects of Duality", June 13-22, 2008, Zakopane, Poland.