Precision matching of circular Wilson loops and strings in AdS₅ x S⁵

Abstract

Previous attempts to match the exact N=4 super Yang-Mills expression for the expectation value of the 12 -BPS circular Wilson loop with the semiclassical AdS5 × S5 string theory prediction were not successful at the first subleading order. There was a missing prefactor ∼ λ−3/4 which could be attributed to the unknown normalization of the string path integral measure. Here we resolve this problem by computing the ratio of the string partition functions corresponding to the circular Wilson loop and the special 14 supersymmetric latitude Wilson loop. The fact that the latter has a trivial expectation value in the gauge theory allows us to relate the prefactor to the contribution of the three zero modes of the “transverse” fluctuation operator in the 5-sphere directions.