Genus-2 Holographic Correlator on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ from Localization

Abstract

We consider the four-point function of the stress tensor multiplet superprimary in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills (SYM) with gauge group $SU(N)$ in the large $N$ and large 't Hooft coupling $λ\equiv g_\text{YM}^2N$ limit, which is holographically dual to the genus expansion of IIB string theory on $AdS_5\times S^5$. In \cite{Binder:2019jwn} it was shown that the integral of this correlator is related to derivatives of the mass deformed $\mathcal{N}=2^*$ sphere free energy, which was computed using supersymmetric localization to leading order in $1/N^2$ for finite $λ$. We generalize this computation to any order in $1/N^2$ for finite $λ$ using topological recursion, and use this any order constraint to fix the $R^4$ correction to the holographic correlator to any order in the genus expansion. We also use it to complete the derivation of the 1-loop supergravity correction, and show that analyticity in spin fails at zero spin in the large $N$ expansion as predicted from the Lorentzian inversion formula. In the flat space limit, the $R^4$ term in the holographic correlator matches that of the IIB S-matrix in 10d, which is a precise check of AdS$_5$/CFT$_4$ for local operators at genus-one. Using the flat space limit and localization we then fix $D^4R^4$ in the holographic correlator to any order in the genus expansion, which is nontrivial at genus-two, i.e. $1/N^6$. This is the first result at two orders beyond the planar limit at strong coupling for a holographic correlator.