Generalized quark-antiquark potential at weak and strong coupling

We study a two-parameter family of Wilson loop operators in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory which interpolates smoothly between the 1/2 BPS line or circle and a pair of antiparallel lines. These observables capture a natural generalization of the quark-antiquark potential. We calculate these loops on the gauge theory side to second order in perturbation theory and in a semiclassical expansion in string theory to one-loop order. The resulting determinants are given in integral form and can be evaluated numerically for general values of the parameters or analytically in a systematic expansion around the 1/2 BPS configuration. We comment about the feasibility of deriving all-loop results for these Wilson loops.

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43 pages: 15 comprising the main text and 25 for detailed appendices

AdS-CFT Correspondence
Supersymmetric gauge theory
quark antiquark: potential
gauge field theory: Yang-Mills: supersymmetry
expansion: semiclassical
supersymmetry: 4
Wilson loop
BPS
strong coupling
weak coupling

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