RG Flow, Wilson Loops and the Dilaton Tadpole

TL;DR

This paper explores how the dilaton tadpole affects the holographic dual of non-supersymmetric conformal gauge theories, leading to a running coupling and a potential that transitions from asymptotic freedom to confinement.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of the dilaton tadpole on the AdS background and computes the Wilson loop, revealing a smooth potential transition consistent with field theory expectations.

Findings

Dilaton tadpole causes logarithmic running of the radius and dilaton.

Wilson loop calculation shows a potential interpolating between asymptotic freedom and confinement.

Results align with theoretical expectations for non-supersymmetric gauge theories.

Abstract

We discuss the role of the dilaton tadpole in the holographic description of non-supersymmetric gauge theories that are conformal in the planar limit. On the string theory side, the presence of the dilaton tadpole modifies the AdS background inducing a logarithmic running for the radius and the dilaton. Using the holographic prescription we compute the Wilson loop on the gravity side and find a smooth interpolating potential between asymptotic freedom and confinement, as expected from field theory.