The Holographic Dual of a SUSY Vector Model and Tensionless Open Strings

TL;DR

This paper establishes a holographic duality between a 3D N=4 supersymmetric vector model and a higher spin gauge theory in AdS_4, connecting string theory, gauge theories, and higher spin fields in a novel supersymmetric context.

Contribution

It introduces a supersymmetric higher spin gauge theory dual to a free N=4 SU(N) vector model, extending holographic duality to supersymmetric and tensionless open string regimes.

Findings

Duality between N=4 vector model and higher spin gauge theory in AdS_4

Higher spin theory as a tensionless limit of open strings on D5-branes

Proposal of a supersymmetric Higgs mechanism in the model

Abstract

We describe a supersymmetric example of the holographic duality between 3 dimensional vector models and higher spin gauge theories in AdS_4, first proposed in a bosonic context by Klebanov and Polyakov. We argue that a particular Fradkin-Vasiliev type supersymmetric higher spin gauge theory in AdS_4 with 16 supersymmetries is dual to the singlet sector of bilinear operators of a free N = 4, SU(N) vector model defined on the boundary. Starting from the duality between type IIB on AdS_5 \times S^5 with a D5-brane as an AdS_4 \times S^2 subspace and the 4 dimensional SU(N) SYM with a defect, we recover the duality between our vector model and the higher spin gauge theory. In this case, we propose that the higher spin gauge theory is a truncation of the open string theory on the world volume of the D5-brane in its tensionless string limit. We also comment on a possible Higgs mechanism in our model.