Extremal vs. Non-Extremal Correlators with Giant Gravitons

TL;DR

This paper compares extremal and non-extremal three-point functions involving giant gravitons in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory using gauge theory and holographic methods, revealing agreement in non-extremal cases and subtlety in extremal cases.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of three approaches to compute three-point functions with giant gravitons, highlighting the agreement and discrepancies in extremal and non-extremal cases.

Findings

Non-extremal correlators agree across all three methods.

Bubbling geometry results match gauge theory for extremal correlators.

Born-Infeld approach differs for extremal correlators, indicating holographic subtleties.

Abstract

We consider extremal and non-extremal three-point functions of two giant gravitons and one point-like graviton using Schur polynomials in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory and holographically, using a semiclassical Born-Infeld analysis as well as bubbling geometries. For non-extremal three-point functions our computations using all three approaches are in perfect agreement. For extremal correlators we find that our results from the bubbling geometry analysis agree with existing results from the gauge theory. The semiclassical Born-Infeld computation for the extremal case is known to give a different answer, which we interpret as a manifestation of the known subtlety of holography for extremal correlators.