On the spectrum and structure constants of short operators in N=4 SYM at strong coupling

Abstract

We study short operators in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM at strong coupling, for general spin and $SO(6)$ symmetric traceless representations. At strong coupling their dimension grows like $\Delta \sim 2\sqrt{\delta} \lambda^{1/4}$ and their spectrum of degeneracies can be analysed by considering the massive spectrum of type II strings in flat space-time. We furthermore compute their structure constants with two arbitrary chiral primary operators. This is done by considering the four-point correlator of arbitrary chiral primary operators at strong coupling in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM, including the supergravity approximation plus the infinite tower of stringy corrections that contributes in the flat space limit. Our results are valid for generic rank $n$ symmetric traceless representations of $SO(6)$ and in particular for $n \gg 1$, as long as $n \ll \lambda^{1/4}$.