SEMICLASSICAL QUANTIZATION OF SUPERSTRINGS: AdS5 × S5 AND BEYOND

Abstract

We discuss semiclassical quantization of closed superstrings in AdS 5 × S 5. We consider two basic examples: point-like string boosted along a large circle of S 5 and folded string rotating in AdS 5. In the first case we clarify the general structure of the sigma model perturbation theory for the energy of string states beyond the one-loop order (related to the plane-wave limit). In the second case we argue that the large spin limit of the expression for the ground-state energy (i.e. for the dimension of the corresponding minimal twist gauge theory operator) has the form S + f(λ) ln S to all orders in the [Formula: see text] expansion, in agreement with the AdS/CFT duality. We also suggest the extension of the semiclassical approach to near-conformal (near-AdS) cases on the example of the fractional D3-brane on conifold background.