On topological recursion for Wilson loops in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 SYM at strong coupling

Abstract

Abstract We consider U(N) $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory and discuss how to extract the strong coupling limit of non-planar corrections to observables involving the $$ \frac{1}{2} $$ 1 2 -BPS Wilson loop. Our approach is based on a suitable saddle point treatment of the Eynard-Orantin topological recursion in the Gaussian matrix model. Working directly at strong coupling we avoid the usual procedure of first computing observables at finite planar coupling λ, order by order in 1/N, and then taking the λ ≫ 1 limit. In the proposed approach, matrix model multi-point resolvents take a simplified form and some structures of the genus expansion, hardly visible at low order, may be identified and rigorously proved. As a sample application, we consider the expectation value of multiple coincident circular supersymmetric Wilson loops as well as their correlator with single trace chiral operators. For these quantities we provide novel results about the structure of their genus expansion at large tension, generalising recent results in arXiv:2011.02885.