Correlators of Circular Wilson Loops from Holography

TL;DR

This paper investigates the strong coupling correlators of two concentric circular Wilson loops using holography, comparing AdS and confining backgrounds, and finds agreement with lattice results in the confining case.

Contribution

It provides a holographic calculation of Wilson loop correlators for different backgrounds, including numerical solutions for confining geometries, and discusses the connected/disconnected worldsheet interplay.

Findings

Agreement with known holographic results in AdS background

Asymptotic area law observed in confining background

Numerical solutions for confining case complement analytical results

Abstract

We study the correlators of two circular Wilson loops of different radii at strong coupling. In our setup one Wilson loop is located inside the other. We use holography to calculate the connected two-point function. Both an AdS background and a confining background are considered. As the computation for the confining case cannot be carried out analytically we solve the problem numerically. In the AdS case our results agree with similar holographic calculations. In the case of a confining background we find an asymptotic area law, in agreement with the result of the lattice strong coupling expansion. We also elaborate on the subtle issue of the interplay between connected and disconnected string worldsheets.