We examine whether the free energy of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory (SYM) in four dimensions corresponds to the partition function of the AdS 5 × S 5 superstring when the corresponding operators are inserted into both theories. We obtain the formal free energy of N = 4 U (N ) SYM in four dimensions generated by the Feynman graph expansion to all orders of the 't Hooft coupling expansion with arbitrary N . This free energy is written as the sum over discretized closed two-dimensional surfaces that are identified with the world-sheets of the string. We compare this free energy with the formal partition function of the discretized AdS 5 × S 5 superstring with the kappasymmetry fixed in the killing gauge and in the expansion corresponding to the weak 't Hooft coupling expansion in the SYM. We find that some of their properties are identical, although further studies are required to obtain a more precise comparison. Our result suggests a mechanism through which the world-sheet emerges dynamically from N = 4 SYM, and this enables us to derive the manner in which the AdS 5 × S 5 superstring is reproduced in the AdS/CFT correspondence.The AdS/CFT correspondence proposed by Maldacena states that the superstring theory on the AdS 5 × S 5 background corresponds to N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory (SYM) in four dimensions [1]. In the g s → 0, α ′ → 0 limit, it has been established that the supergravity on AdS 5 × S 5 corresponds to N = 4 SYM in the large N, large 't Hooft coupling (λ = g 2 Y M N) limit [2][3][4][5]. In the g s → 0 limit and in the weak α ′ expansion, which corresponds to the strong λ expansion in the SYM (λ = R 4 α ′2 ), carrying out comparison is difficult, because we know little about the strong coupling SYM, while we know much about the weak coupling SYM. If we take the BMN limit 1 further, the AdS/CFT correspondence reduces to the correspondence between the superstring theory on the pp-wave background and the BMN sector of N = 4 SYM in the large N limit [10-13]. Although we can compare this limiting string theory with the weak coupling SYM effectively by using the composite coupling expansion (λ/J 2 , where J is the large R charge), we fail to see the correspondence at three loops [14,15]. Therefore, we need to find a string description dual to the weak coupling SYM [16][17][18][19].On the other hand, recently the c ≤ 1 U(N) matrix model, which corresponds to the c ≤ 1 string theory nonperturbatively, has been developed extensively [20][21][22][23][24] by incorporating the ideas employed in study of the tachyon condensation [25,26], D-branes and the AdS/CFT correspondence. Next, we need to develop the AdS/CFT correspondence by incorporating the ideas used in the c ≤ 1 matrix model [27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. One of the most important facts concerning the correspondence between the c ≤ 1 matrix model and the c ≤ 1 string theory is that the free energy of the matrix model is identical to the partition function of the string theory.The first piece of evidences supporting this fact is based on the emergence o...