Conformal anomaly of Wilson surface observables - a field theoretical computation

Abstract

We make an exact field theoretical computation of the conformal anomaly for two-dimensional submanifold observables. By including a scalar field in the definition for the Wilson surface, as appropriate for a spontaneously broken A_1 theory, we get a conformal anomaly which is such that N times it is equal to the anomaly that was computed in hep-th/9901021 in the large N limit and which relied on the AdS-CFT correspondence. We also show how the spherical surface observable can be expressed as a conformal anomaly.

18 pages, V3: an `i' dropped in the Wilson surface, overall normalization and misprints corrected, V4: overall normalization factor corrected, references added

References in corpus (3)

• An Exact Prediction of N=4 SUSYM Theory for String Theory
• On the Weyl anomaly of Wilson surfaces
• Free tensor multiplets and strings in spontaneously broken six-dimensional (2,0) theory

Cited by in corpus (23)

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• M5-branes and Wilson Surfaces
• Surface Defect, Anomalies and $b$-Extremization
• Defect CFT in the 6d (2,0) theory from M2 brane dynamics in AdS${}_7\times$S${}^4$
• Central Charges of 2d Superconformal Defects
• Wilson loops in Five-Dimensional Super-Yang-Mills
• Holography of BPS surface operators
• Free energy and defect $C$-theorem in free scalar theory
• Entanglement entropy of Wilson surfaces from bubbling geometries in M-theory
• Defect CFT techniques in the 6d $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ theory
• Lattice Gerbe Theory
• String theory duals of Wilson loops from Higgsing
• Operator Product Expansion of Wilson surfaces from M5-branes
• Observations on BPS observables in 6d
• M2-doughnuts
• 6d Dual Conformal Symmetry and Minimal Volumes in AdS
• Ironing out the crease
• Analyticity Properties of Graham-Witten Anomalies
• Integrability structures in string theory
• Surface Operators in Superspace
• Rényi Entropy with Surface Defects in Six Dimensions