To gauge or not to gauge?

Abstract

The D0 brane, or BFSS, matrix model is a quantum mechanical theory with an interesting gravity dual. We consider a variant of this model where we treat the $SU(N)$ symmetry as a global symmetry, rather than as a gauge symmetry. This variant contains new non-singlet states. We consider the impact of these new states on its gravity dual. We argue that the gravity dual is essentially the same as the one for the original matrix model. The non-singlet states have higher energy at strong coupling and are therefore dynamically suppressed.