Semiclassical Quantization of the Giant Magnon

Abstract

Solitons in field theory provide a window into regimes not directly accessible by the fundamental perturbative degrees of freedom. Motivated by interest in the worldsheet S-matrix of string theory in AdS_5 x S^5 in the limit of infinite worldsheet volume we consider the semiclassical quantization of a particular soliton of this theory: the Hofman-Maldacena `giant magnon' spinning string. We obtain explicit formulas for the complete spectrum of bosonic and fermionic fluctuations around the giant magnon. As an application of these results we confirm that the one-loop correction to the classical energy vanishes as expected.