On precision holography for the circular Wilson loop in AdS5 × S5

Abstract

The string theory calculation of the 12-BPS circular Wilson loop of N=4 SYM in the planar limit at next to leading order at strong coupling is revisited in the ratio of its semiclassical string partition function and the one dual to a latitude Wilson loop with trivial expectation value. After applying a conformal transformation from the disk to the cylinder, this problem can be approached by means of the Gel'fand-Yaglom formalism. Using results from the literature and the exclusion of zero modes from a modified Gel'fand-Yaglom formula, we obtain matching with the known field theory result. As seen in the phaseshift method computation, non-zero mode contributions cancel and the end result comes from the zero mode degeneracies of the latitude Wilson loop.