Multiply wound Polyakov loops at strong coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of multiply wound Polyakov loops in strongly coupled N=4 super Yang-Mills theory using holographic duality, revealing nontrivial k dependence and scaling corrections near a phase transition.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic approach to compute multiply wound Polyakov loops, highlighting the role of D5 branes in capturing k dependence and identifying N^{-2/3} corrections.

Findings

Nontrivial k dependence captured by D5 branes.

Identification of N^{-2/3} scaling corrections.

Insights into phase transition behavior near Gross-Witten transition.

Abstract

We study the expectation value of a Polyakov-Maldacena loop that wraps the thermal circle k times in strongly coupled N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. This is achieved by considering probe D3 and D5 brane embeddings in the dual black hole geometry. In contrast to multiply wound spatial Wilson loops, nontrivial dependence on k is captured through D5 branes. We find N^{-2/3} corrections, reminiscent of the scaling behaviour near a Gross-Witten transition.