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AdS/CFT correspondence
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{{Short description|Duality between theories of gravity on anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theories}} {{Featured article}} {{String theory}} In [[theoretical physics]], the '''anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence''' (frequently abbreviated as AdS/CFT) is a conjectured relationship between two kinds of physical theories. On one side are [[anti-de Sitter space]]s (AdS) that are used in theories of [[quantum gravity]], formulated in terms of [[string theory]] or [[M-theory]]. On the other side of the correspondence are [[conformal field theory|conformal field theories]] (CFT) that are [[quantum field theory|quantum field theories]], including theories similar to the [[Yang–Mills theory|Yang–Mills theories]] that describe elementary particles. The duality represents a major advance in the understanding of string theory and quantum gravity.{{sfn|ps=|de Haro|Dieks|'t Hooft|Verlinde|2013|p=2}} This is because it provides a [[non-perturbative]] formulation of string theory with certain [[boundary condition]]s and because it is the most successful realization of the [[holographic principle]], an idea in quantum gravity originally proposed by [[Gerard 't Hooft]] and promoted by [[Leonard Susskind]]. It also provides a powerful toolkit for studying [[coupling (physics)|strongly coupled]] quantum field theories.{{sfn|ps=|Klebanov|Maldacena|2009}} Much of the usefulness of the duality results from the fact that it is a strong–weak duality: when the fields of the quantum field theory are strongly interacting, the ones in the gravitational theory are weakly interacting and thus more mathematically tractable. This fact has been used to study many aspects of [[nuclear physics|nuclear]] and [[condensed matter physics]] by translating problems in those subjects into more mathematically tractable problems in string theory. The AdS/CFT correspondence was first proposed by [[Juan Maldacena]] in late 1997.{{sfn|ps=|Maldacena|1998|loc=The pre-print was submitted in 1997 and published on January 1, 1998.}} Important aspects of the correspondence were soon elaborated on in two articles, one by [[Steven Gubser]], [[Igor Klebanov]] and [[Alexander Markovich Polyakov|Alexander Polyakov]], and another by [[Edward Witten]]. By 2015, Maldacena's article had over 10,000 citations, becoming the most highly cited article in the field of [[high energy physics]].{{refn|name="inspire"|{{cite web |url= https://inspirehep.net/info/hep/stats/topcites/2014/alltime.html |title=Top Cited Articles of All Time (2014 edition) | publisher= [[INSPIRE-HEP]] |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | access-date=26 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906143001/https://inspirehep.net/info/hep/stats/topcites/2014/alltime.html |archive-date=6 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}}} One of the most prominent examples of the AdS/CFT correspondence has been the AdS5/CFT4 correspondence: a relation between [[N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory|''N'' = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory]] in 3+1 dimensions and type IIB superstring theory on {{nowrap|AdS<sub>5</sub> × ''S''<sup>5</sup>}}.{{sfn|ps=|Ammon|Erdmenger|2015}}
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