Paper detail

Light-like polygonal Wilson loops in 3d Chern-Simons and ABJM theory

We study light-like polygonal Wilson loops in three-dimensional Chern-Simons and ABJM theory to two-loop order. For both theories we demonstrate that the one-loop contribution to these correlators cancels. For pure Chern-Simons, we find that specific UV divergences arise from diagrams involving two cusps, implying the loss of finiteness and topological invariance at two-loop order. Studying those UV divergences we derive anomalous conformal Ward identities for n-cusped Wilson loops which restrict the finite part of the latter to conformally invariant functions. We also compute the four-cusp Wilson loop in ABJM theory to two-loop order and find that the result is remarkably similar to that of the corresponding Wilson loop in N=4 SYM. Finally, we speculate about the existence of a Wilson loop/scattering amplitude relation in ABJM theory.