Loop operators in N=4 super-Yang-Mills,
pure spinors and 2d gauge theory
Vasily Pestun
I will review the recent progress on the exact computation of expectation
values and correlation functions in N=4 SYM involving 't Hooft and
Wilson loops with certain supersymmetry. If the supersymmetry parameter is
a pure spinor on a two-dimensional subspace S^2 of the space-time, then
the correlation functions of certain Wilson loops on S^2 and certain 't
Hooft loops, linked with the S^2, are computed by localization to
a two-dimensional gauge theory on S^2, which is a semi-topological
version of Yang-Mills-Hitchin theory.