On the spectrum of AdS/CFT beyond supergravity

Abstract

We test the spectrum of string theory on AdS_5 x S^5 derived in hep-th/0305052 against that of single-trace gauge invariant operators in free N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Masses of string excitations at critical tension are derived by extrapolating plane-wave frequencies at g_{YM}=0 down to finite J. On the SYM side, we present a systematic description of the spectrum of single-trace operators and its reduction to PSU(2,2|4) superconformal primaries via a refined Eratostenes' supersieve. We perform the comparison of the resulting SYM/string spectra of charges and multiplicities order by order in the conformal dimension \Delta up to \Delta=10 and find perfect agreement. Interestingly, the SYM/string massive spectrum exhibits a hidden symmetry structure larger than expected, with bosonic subgroup SO(10,2) and thirty-two supercharges.