Perturbative bootstrap of the Wilson-line defect CFT: Bulk-defect-defect correlators

Abstract

We study the correlators of bulk and defect half-BPS operators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills theory with a Maldacena-Wilson line defect, focusing on the case involving one bulk and two defect local operators. We analyze the non-perturbative constraints on these correlators, which include a topological sector, pinching and splitting limits, and we compute a variety of bulk-defect-defect correlators up to next-to-leading order at weak coupling, surprisingly observing that transcendental terms cancel. Additionally, we provide results in the strong-coupling regime for the first two leading orders using a mixture of Witten diagrams and non-perturbative constraints.