Undulating Strings and Gauge Theory Waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamics of strings in AdS space related to heavy quarks in N=4 SYM, revealing insights into time-dependent gauge fields, energy conservation puzzles, and comparisons between baryons and quark-antiquark pairs.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of wave propagation on strings in AdS, providing new inferences about gauge fields and highlighting energy conservation issues in the gauge theory.

Findings

Waves on strings yield insights into oscillating quark fields

Identification of a puzzle in energy conservation within SYM

Comparison of gauge fields from baryons and quark-antiquark pairs

Abstract

We study some dynamical aspects of the correspondence between strings in AdS space and external heavy quarks in N=4 SYM. Specifically, by examining waves propagating on such strings, we make some plausible (and some surprising) inferences about the time-dependent fields produced by oscillating quarks in the strongly-coupled gauge theory. We point out a puzzle regarding energy conservation in the SYM theory. In addition, we perform a similar analysis of the gauge fields produced by a baryon (represented as a D5-brane with string-like extension in AdS space) and compare and contrast with the gauge fields produced by a quark-antiquark pair (represented as a string looping through AdS space).