WILSON-POLYAKOV LOOP AT FINITE-TEMPERATURE IN LARGE-N GAUGE-THEORY AND ANTI-DE-SITTER SUPERGRAVITY

Aspects of d = 4, N = 4 superconformal U(N) gauge theory are studied a t finite temperature. Utilizing dual description of large-N and strong coupling limit via Type IIB string theory compactification on Schwarz schild-anti-de Sitter space-time, we study correlations of Wilson-Poly akov loops and heavy quark potential thereof. We find that the heavy q uark potential is Coulomb-like and has a finite range, as expected for gauge theory in high temperature, deconfinement phase. The potential exhibits finite temperature scaling consistent with underlying conform al invariance, We also study isolated heavy quark on a probe D3-brane world-volume and find supporting evidence that near extremal D3-branes are located at the Schwarzschild horizon, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B ,V.