High Energy Theory Seminar

I will review a lattice gauge theory construction of N=4 super-Yang-Mills that has been developed over the last several years. It starts from a "twist" of the original N=4 theory which was explicitly written out by Marcus. This twisted theory is re-expressed in terms of five-dimensional variables, which are then promoted to lattice fields with a natural geometric interpretation on the A_4^* lattice. I will show that symmetries of the lattice theory are particularly powerful in terms of protecting the long distance effective theory from unwanted renormalizations. The restoration of a discrete subgroup of the R symmetry is shown to be sufficient for guaranteeing the correct continuum limit, which leads naturally to measurements which can be performed in the process of fine-tuning the lattice action. I also show a symmetric blocking scheme that we recently developed, which is a key ingredient to putting the long distance theory on a firm footing. Prospects for future work will also be discussed.