We perform nonperturbative studies of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory by Monte Carlo simulation. In particular, we calculate the correlation functions of chiral primary operators to test the AdS/CFT correspondence. Our results agree with the predictions obtained from the AdS side that the SUSY non-renormalization property is obeyed by the three-point functions but emph{not} by the four-point functions investigated in this paper. Instead of the lattice regularization, we use a novel regularization of the theory based on an equivalence in the large-N limit between the N=4 SU(N) theory on RxS^3 and a one-dimensional SU(N) gauge theory known as the plane-wave (BMN) matrix model. The equivalence extends the idea of large-N reduction to a curved space and, at the same time, overcomes the obstacle related to the center symmetry breaking. The adopted regularization preserves 16 SUSY, which is crucial in testing the AdS/CFT correspondence with the available computer resources. The only SUSY breaking effects, which come from the momentum cutoff $Lambda$ in R direction, are made negligible by using sufficiently large $Lambda$.
We perform Monte Carlo calculation of correlation functions in 4d N=4 super Yang-Mills theory on R*S^3 in the planar limit. In order to circumvent the well-known problem of lattice SUSY, we adopt the idea of a novel large-N reduction, which reduces the calculation to that of corresponding correlation functions in the plane-wave matrix model or the BMN matrix model. This model is a 1d gauge theory with 16 supersymmetries, which can be simulated in a manner similar to the recent studies of the D0-brane system. We study two-point and three-point functions of chiral primary operators at various coupling constant, and find that they agree with the free theory results up to overall constant factors. The ratio of the overall factors for two-point and three-point functions agrees with the prediction of the AdS/CFT correspondence.
