3–14 Aug 2026
Europe/London timezone
This is the annual bootstrap conference, which will take place in London during the first two weeks of August 2026

Multi-trace operators in \mathcal{N}=4 SYM

7 Aug 2026, 16:15
30m
Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre 101 (Tait Building at City St George’s, University of London)

Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre 101

Tait Building at City St George’s, University of London

Speaker

Giulia Fardelli

Description

In this talk, I will discuss recent progress toward understanding the spectrum of multi-trace operators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM at large 't Hooft coupling and at tree level in the large-N expansion, focusing on triple-trace operators in the R-symmetry singlet sector. While partial information about these operators can be extracted from four-point functions, a complete understanding remains elusive, in part because of their large degeneracy at fixed spin. To extract the anomalous dimensions of these operators, we develop an AdS Hamiltonian approach, i.e., we diagonalize an effective Hamiltonian built from interactions involving the Lagrangian densities $L_p$, which are superdescendants of the stress-tensor superprimary and its Kaluza–Klein modes. We show that this Hamiltonian reproduces the known spectrum of double-trace operators and makes the hidden 10d symmetry manifest. We then compute its action on triple-trace operators built from three $L_p$'s, determining their anomalous dimensions as a function of spin. If time permits, I will also present preliminary results on higher-trace operators, exploring their eigenvalue statistics and possible signatures of chaotic behavior.

Presentation materials