We compute the two-point function of Konishi-like operators up to one-loop order, in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We work perturbatively in N=1 superspace. We find the expression expected on the basis of superconformal invariance and determine the normalization of the correlator and the anomalous dimension of the operators to order g^2 in the coupling constant.
We present a new method for computing the Konishi anomalous dimension in N=4 SYM at weak coupling. It does not rely on the conventional Feynman diagram technique and is not restricted to the planar limit. It is based on the OPE analysis of the four-p
oint correlation function of stress-tensor multiplets, which has been recently constructed up to six loops. The Konishi operator gives the leading contribution to the singlet SU(4) channel of this OPE. Its anomalous dimension is the coefficient of the leading single logarithmic singularity of the logarithm of the correlation function in the double short-distance limit, in which the operator positions coincide pairwise. We regularize the logarithm of the correlation function in this singular limit by a version of dimensional regularization. At any loop level, the resulting singularity is a simple pole whose residue is determined by a finite two-point integral with one loop less. This drastically simplifies the five-loop calculation of the Konishi anomalous dimension by reducing it to a set of known four-loop two-point integrals and two unknown integrals which we evaluate analytically. We obtain an analytic result at five loops in the planar limit and observe perfect agreement with the prediction based on integrability in AdS/CFT.
We introduce a nonperturbative approach to correlation functions of two determinant operators and one non-protected single-trace operator in planar N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Based on the gauge/string duality, we propose that they correspo
nd to overlaps on the string worldsheet between an integrable boundary state and a state dual to the single-trace operator. We determine the boundary state using symmetry and integrability of the dual superstring sigma model, and write down expressions for the correlators at finite coupling, which we conjecture to be valid for operators of arbitrary size. The proposal is put to test at weak coupling.
We propose a mechanism for calculating anomalous dimensions of higher-spin twist-two operators in N=4 SYM. We consider the ratio of the two-point functions of the operators and of their superconformal descendants or, alternatively, of the three-point
functions of the operators and of the descendants with two protected half-BPS operators. These ratios are proportional to the anomalous dimension and can be evaluated at n-1 loop in order to determine the anomalous dimension at n loops. We illustrate the method by reproducing the well-known one-loop result by doing only tree-level calculations. We work out the complete form of the first-generation descendants of the twist-two operators and the scalar sector of the second-generation descendants.
We obtain all planar four-point correlators of half-BPS operators in $mathcal{N}=4$ SYM up to five loops. The ansatz for the integrand is fixed partially by imposing light-cone OPE relations between different correlators. We then fix the integrated c
orrelators by comparing their asymptotic expansions with simple data obtained from integrability. We extract OPE coefficients and find a prediction for the triple wrapping correction of the hexagon form factors, which contributes already at the five-loop order.
In the context of the superconformal N=4 SYM theory the Konishi anomaly can be viewed as the descendant $K_{10}$ of the Konishi multiplet in the 10 of SU(4), carrying the anomalous dimension of the multiplet. Another descendant $O_{10}$ with the same
quantum numbers, but this time without anomalous dimension, is obtained from the protected half-BPS operator $O_{20}$ (the stress-tensor multiplet). Both $K_{10}$ and $O_{10}$ are renormalized mixtures of the same two bare operators, one trilinear (coming from the superpotential), the other bilinear (the so-called quantum Konishi anomaly). Only the operator $K_{10}$ is allowed to appear in the right-hand side of the Konishi anomaly equation, the protected one $O_{10}$ does not match the conformal properties of the left-hand side. Thus, in a superconformal renormalization scheme the separation into classical and quantum anomaly terms is not possible, and the question whether the Konishi anomaly is one-loop exact is out of context. The same treatment applies to the operators of the BMN family, for which no analogy with the traditional axial anomaly exists. We illustrate our abstract analysis of this mixing problem by an explicit calculation of the mixing matrix at level g^4 (two loops) in the supersymmetric dimensional reduction scheme.