{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"f2d37389c0d1a0e30a390cff22ce1e0b4257d8deefb06d833b5aa699751d2259","created":"2026-10-03T07:18:09Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"845640c68e7e6965a5f5ecf53919147c479ee7b0c7e12e59ac2230a4e89c0a10","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"identification","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"qft.string-nonperturbative.free-sym-worldsheet","kind":"well-posed","literature_status":"partially-resolved","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"Gauge theory with many colors and no interaction at all should still be equivalent to a string theory in curved space with strings of zero tension. Finding that string theory explicitly would show from first principles how gauge fields turn into strings.","posed_since":"","precise":"Planar free $N=4\\ \\operatorname{SU}(N)$ super-Yang-Mills ($g_{\\mathrm{YM}} = 0$, $N \\to \\infty$) should be dual to tensionless type IIB strings on $\\mathrm{AdS}_5 x S^5$. For $\\mathrm{AdS}_3 x S^3 x T^4$ with one unit of NS-NS flux this was established with a worldsheet theory reproducing the symmetric-orbifold CFT (Eberhardt, Gaberdiel, Gopakumar 2018-2019). Construct the $\\mathrm{AdS}_5$ worldsheet theory and show that its genus-zero correlators equal the planar free-field correlators of all single-trace operators.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"A worldsheet theory whose genus-zero correlators are shown to equal planar free $N=4$ correlators for all single-trace operators, for example by localization of the worldsheet path integral onto free-field Wick contractions.","status_note":"Gaberdiel and Gopakumar (2021, arXiv:2104.08263) proposed a worldsheet description whose spectrum matches planar free $N=4$ super-Yang-Mills; correlators have not been derived from it.","title":"Worldsheet string theory dual to free $N=4$ super-Yang-Mills","topic_ref":"77b6787c01ad201a13194ef87168eea66a0756da2a9a351dc5d7a1594827efd5"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"a3ba3b84b8fbde53fc346e1e7f9a738dc299123f8f9963ca77be9a539278fbeb","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"4675ca6da61247aefc08febe9aa34ce613141ea36423314814efdec0ed71f58d","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"n_-tXz1xdlRZNFkE4ieCiCEISMG8FEM0YZ5Borj6dIqg4HCZnL2zFZoie2hmC_OBDhjqMVsxafB4G8XS-jSHDg"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"a3ba3b84b8fbde53fc346e1e7f9a738dc299123f8f9963ca77be9a539278fbeb","leaf_index":1955}