Wilson loops in the Higgs phase of large-N field theories on the conifold

Abstract

We study the quark-antiquark interaction in the large N limit of the superconformal field theory on D-3branes at a Calabi-Yau conical singularity. We compute the Wilson loop in the AdS_(5) × T^(11) supergravity background for the SU(2 N ) × SU(2 N) theory. We also calculate the Wilson loop for the Higgs phase where the gauge group is broken to SU ( N ) × SU ( N ) × SU_(D) ( N). This corresponds to a two center configuration with some of the branes at the singularity and the rest of them at a smooth point. The calculation exhibits the expected Coulomb dependence for the interaction. The angular distribution of the BPS states is different than the one for a spherical horizon.