Z(N) Domain walls in hot N=4 SYM at weak and strong coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates domain wall tensions in N=4 SYM theory at both weak and strong coupling, revealing Casimir scaling at weak coupling and providing a holographic strong coupling calculation, with comparisons to lattice results.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of domain wall tensions in N=4 SYM at weak and strong coupling, using perturbative calculations and AdS/CFT correspondence.

Findings

Casimir scaling of domain wall tension at weak coupling

Strong coupling tension calculated via AdS/CFT and NS5-brane configuration

Comparison with lattice results in pure Yang-Mills theory

Abstract

We study the tensions of domain walls in the deconfined phase of N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills theory on R^3 x S^1, at weak and strong coupling. We calculate the k-wall tension at one-loop order and find that it is proportional to k(N-k) (Casimir scaling). The two-loops analysis suggests that Casimir scaling persists to this order. The strong coupling calculation is performed by using the AdS/CFT correspondence. We argue that the k-wall should be identified with an NS5-brane wrapping an S^4 inside S^5 in the AdS-Schwarzschild x S^5 background in Type IIB string theory. The tension at strong coupling is compared with the weak coupling result. We also compare our results with those from lattice simulations in pure Yang-Mills theory.