Gauge theories, D-branes and holography

Based on a generalization of the string theoretic concept of D-brane probe, we propose a new approach to large N gauge theories which makes the holographic properties manifest. For any gauge theory, we define from first principles an effective action for a fixed number of “probe” D-branes in the presence of N “background” D-branes on which the gauge theory lives. This effective action is shown to encode all the information about the large N gauge theory. The analysis of the planar diagram expansion which computes the effective action yields a simple and generic mechanism explaining the emergence of holographic space dimensions: the probe D-branes move in a higher dimensional dual holographic space–time. The construction yields a new perspective on the notion of bulk space–time locality and draws unexpected links with some aspects of the 't Hooft Abelian projection ideas. It also provides a new non-perturbative approximation scheme, able to capture both the weak and strong coupling regimes. We sketchily illustrate the basic ideas on a few examples, including the pure four dimensional Yang–Mills theory.