An Airy tale at large N
Abstract We study the sphere partition function of 3d N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 holographic SCFTs arising on the worldvolume of N coincident M2-branes in the presence of squashing and real mass deformations. We argue that the all-order large N perturbative expansion of the partition function resums in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2025)123 |
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| author | Nikolay Bobev Pieter-Jan De Smet Junho Hong Valentin Reys Xuao Zhang |
| author_facet | Nikolay Bobev Pieter-Jan De Smet Junho Hong Valentin Reys Xuao Zhang |
| author_sort | Nikolay Bobev |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract We study the sphere partition function of 3d N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 holographic SCFTs arising on the worldvolume of N coincident M2-branes in the presence of squashing and real mass deformations. We argue that the all-order large N perturbative expansion of the partition function resums into a compact expression in terms of an Airy function. We provide ample evidence for this conjecture using numerical methods, saddle point analysis in the ’t Hooft limit, and the relation of the squashed sphere partition function to the Cardy-like limit of the superconformal index. We also discuss the relation of our results to topological string theory and the statistical mechanics of Fermi gases. Our conjecture has a bearing on the AdS/CFT correspondence and the structure of perturbative M-theory corrections to 11d supergravity which we discuss. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0cf5723bda944462ab5db86bddee2f88 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1029-8479 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| spelling | doaj-art-0cf5723bda944462ab5db86bddee2f882025-08-20T04:01:42ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792025-07-012025716110.1007/JHEP07(2025)123An Airy tale at large NNikolay Bobev0Pieter-Jan De Smet1Junho Hong2Valentin Reys3Xuao Zhang4Institute for Theoretical Physics, KU LeuvenInstitute for Theoretical Physics, KU LeuvenDepartment of Physics & Center for Quantum Spacetime, Sogang UniversityUniversité Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, Institut de physique théoriqueInstitute for Theoretical Physics, KU LeuvenAbstract We study the sphere partition function of 3d N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 holographic SCFTs arising on the worldvolume of N coincident M2-branes in the presence of squashing and real mass deformations. We argue that the all-order large N perturbative expansion of the partition function resums into a compact expression in terms of an Airy function. We provide ample evidence for this conjecture using numerical methods, saddle point analysis in the ’t Hooft limit, and the relation of the squashed sphere partition function to the Cardy-like limit of the superconformal index. We also discuss the relation of our results to topological string theory and the statistical mechanics of Fermi gases. Our conjecture has a bearing on the AdS/CFT correspondence and the structure of perturbative M-theory corrections to 11d supergravity which we discuss.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2025)1231/N ExpansionAdS-CFT CorrespondenceMatrix Models |
| spellingShingle | Nikolay Bobev Pieter-Jan De Smet Junho Hong Valentin Reys Xuao Zhang An Airy tale at large N Journal of High Energy Physics 1/N Expansion AdS-CFT Correspondence Matrix Models |
| title | An Airy tale at large N |
| title_full | An Airy tale at large N |
| title_fullStr | An Airy tale at large N |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Airy tale at large N |
| title_short | An Airy tale at large N |
| title_sort | airy tale at large n |
| topic | 1/N Expansion AdS-CFT Correspondence Matrix Models |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2025)123 |
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