On BPS strings in N=4 Yang-Mills theory

We study singular time-dependent <mml:mfrac>18</mml:mfrac>-BPS configurations in the abelian sector of N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory that represent BPS string-like defects in x S-3 spacetime. Such BPS strings can be described as intersections of the zeros of holomorphic functions in two complex variables with a 3-sphere. We argue that these BPS strings map to <mml:mfrac>18</mml:mfrac>-BPS surface operators under the state-operator correspondence of the CFT. We show that the string defects are holographically dual to noncompact probe D3-branes in global AdS(5) x S-5 that share supersymmetries with a class of dual-giant gravitons. For simple configurations, we demonstrate how to define a good variational problem and propose a regularization scheme that leads to finite energy and global charges on both sides of the holographic correspondence.