Higher spins and stringy AdS5 x S5

In this lecture I review recent work done in collaboration with Beisert et al. [1-3] (For a concise summary see [4].). After a notational flash on the AdS/CFT correspondence, I will discuss higher spin (HS) symmetry enhancement at small radius and how this is holographically captured by free N = 4 SYM theory. I will then derive the spectrum of perturbative superstring excitations on AdS in this particular limit and successfully compare it with the spectrum of single-trace operators in free N = 4 SYM at large N, obtained by means of Polya(kov)'s counting. Decomposing the spectrum into HS multiplets allows one to precisely identify the massless' HS doubleton and the lower spin Goldstone multiplets which participate in the pantagruelic Higgs mechanism, termed "La Grande Bouffe". After recalling some basic features of Vasiliev's formulation of HS gauge theories, I will eventually sketch how to describe mass generation in the AdS bulk A la Suckelberg and its holographic implications such as the emergence of anomalous dimensions in the boundary N = 4 SYM theory. (c) 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.