Deformed PP-waves from the Lunin-Maldacena background

Abstract

In this article we study a pp-wave limit of the Lunin-Maldacena background. We show that the relevant string theory background is a homogeneous ppwave. We obtain the string spectrum. The dual field theory is a deformation of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. We have shown that, for a class of operators, at O(g 2 Y M ) and at leading order in N, all contributions to the anomalous dimension come from F -terms. We are able to identify the operator in the deformed super Yang-Mills which is dual to the lowest string mode. By studying the undeformed theory we are able to provide some evidence, directly in the field theory, that a small set of nearly protected operators decouple. We make some comments on operators in the Yang-Mills theory that are dual to excited string modes.