Correlator of Wilson and t'Hooft Loops at Strong Coupling in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM Theory

TL;DR

This paper calculates the correlator of 't Hooft and Wilson loops at strong coupling in N=4 SYM, revealing temperature-dependent phase transitions and minimal surface configurations in AdS space.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of Wilson-'t Hooft loop correlators at strong coupling, including temperature effects and phase transition behavior in AdS/CFT.

Findings

Minimal admissible ratio of radii is approximately 0.606 at zero temperature.

At high temperatures, the ratio becomes 1/πT.

Existence of a phase transition between disconnected and connected minimal surfaces.

Abstract

We calculate the correlator of a 't Hooft and a Wilson coplanar circular concentric loops at strong coupling in N=4 SYM theory when it reduces to the calculation of the composite minimal surface in the curved space with the proper boundary conditions. The minimal admissible ratio of the radii of 't Hooft and Wilson loops for such a configuration is found to be $\mathrm{e}^{-1/2}\approx 0.606$ at zero temperature and the dependence of the minimal admissible radii ratio on temperature is derived. At low temperatures the minimal admissible ratio for 't Hooft and Wilson loops remains close to 0.6, whereas at high temperatures $T$ it becomes equal to $\frac{1}{\pi T}$. We find that at any temperature there exists a phase transition point: beneath some specific value of 't Hooft loop radius the dual counterpart of Wilson-'t Hooft correlator is organized as two disconnected surfaces in AdS, whereas for 't Hooft loop radius above it, there exists a connected configuration with a junction of monopole, charge and dyon surfaces. We suggest a generalization of the entanglement entropy for charged boundaries and make some comments on its calculation at strong coupling.