"Holey Sheets" - Pfaffians and Subdeterminants as D-brane Operators in Large N Gauge Theories

TL;DR

This paper explores how Pfaffian, determinant, and subdeterminant operators in large N gauge theories correspond to wrapped D3-branes in the AdS/CFT framework, revealing a modified 't Hooft expansion with boundary worldsheets.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the inclusion of such operators in correlation functions naturally modifies the 't Hooft expansion to include worldsheets with boundaries, independent of supersymmetry or conformal invariance.

Findings

Presence of operator pairs leads to boundary worldsheets in the expansion.

Identification of Pfaffian and subdeterminant operators with D-brane states.

Modified 't Hooft expansion captures D-brane effects in gauge theories.

Abstract

In the AdS/CFT correspondence, wrapped D3-branes (such as "giant gravitons") on the string theory side of the correspondence have been identified with Pfaffian, determinant and subdeterminant operators on the field theory side. We substantiate this identification by showing that the presence of pairs of such operators in a correlation function of a large N gauge theory naturally leads to a modified 't Hooft expansion including also worldsheets with boundaries. This happens independently of supersymmetry or conformal invariance.