Perturbative bootstrap of the Wilson-line defect CFT: Bulk-defect-defect correlators

A bstract We study the correlators of bulk and defect half-BPS operators in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:math> = 4 Super Yang-Mills theory with a Maldacena-Wilson line defect, focusing on the case involving one bulk and two defect local operators. We analyze the non-perturbative constraints on these correlators, which include a topological sector, pinching and splitting limits: and we compute a variety of bulk-defect-defect correlators up to next-to-leading order at weak coupling, observing that transcendental terms cancel. Additionally, we study the two leading terms in the strong-coupling regime, and present partial results for the next-to-next-to-leading order.