Uniform Light-Cone Gauge for Strings in AdS_5 x S^5: Solving su(1|1) Sector

Abstract

We introduce a uniform light-cone gauge for strings propagating in AdS space-time. We use the gauge to analyze strings from the su(1|1) sector, and show that the reduced model is described by a quadratic action for two complex fermions. Thus, the uniform light-cone gauge allows us to solve the model exactly. We analyze the near BMN spectrum of states from the su(1|1) sector and show that it correctly reproduces the 1/J corrections. We also compute the spectrum in the strong coupling limit, and derive the famous \lambda^{1/4} asymptotics. We then show that the same string spectrum can be also derived by solving Bethe ansatz type equations, and discuss their relation to the quantum string Bethe ansatz for the su(1|1) sector.