Unmixing the Wilson line defect CFT. Part II: analytic bootstrap

Abstract

In this second installment of a series of two papers on the $\tfrac{1}{2}$-BPS Wilson line defect CFT in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills, we focus on dynamical aspects of the theory, in particular studying four-point functions with analytic bootstrap methods. Relying on the results of a companion paper for the kinematics and strong coupling spectrum, we consider various four-point functions in the planar limit, in an expansion for large 't Hooft coupling. Our ultimate goal is to provide a detailed derivation of the four-point function of the displacement supermultiplet at three loops, first presented in 2103.10440. Along the way, we present a large amount of new results including four-point functions with zero, one or two long external supermultiplets. The last two represent a novelty in the analytic bootstrap literature and are instrumental in addressing the problem of operators degeneracy. Such phenomenon leads to the necessity of resolving a mixing problem that is more complicated than those usually encountered in the study of holographic correlators, thus leading us to the development of a new approach that we believe will have a wider range of applicability. Related to this issue, we analyze in some detail the structure of the dilatation operator in this model. Some of the ingredients that we use apply more generally to holographic theories, although a thorough investigation of these aspects is missing, to the best of our knowledge, in most interesting cases.