Yangian Symmetry of smooth Wilson Loops in N=4 super Yang-Mills Theory

Understand

We show that appropriately supersymmetrized smooth Maldacena-Wilson loop operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory are invariant under a Yangian symmetry Y[psu(2,2|4)] built upon the manifest superconformal symmetry algebra of the theory.

• The existence of this hidden symmetry is demonstrated at the one-loop order in the weak coupling limit as well as at leading order in the strong coupling limit employing the classical integrability of the dual AdS_5 x S^5 string description.
• The hidden symmetry generators consist of a canonical non-local second order variational derivative piece acting on the superpath, along with a novel local path dependent contribution.
• We match the functional form of these Yangian symmetry generators at weak and strong coupling and find evidence for an interpolating function.