A three-loop test of the dilatation operator in N=4 SYM

Abstract We compute the three-loop anomalous dimension of the BMN operators with charges J = 0 (the Konishi multiplet) and J = 1 in the N = 4 super-Yang–Mills theory. We employ a method which effectively reduces the calculation to two loops. Instead of using the superconformal primary states, we consider the ratio of the two-point functions of suitable descendants of the corresponding multiplets. Our results unambiguously select the form of the N = 4 SYM dilatation operator which is compatible with BMN scaling. Thus, we provide evidence for BMN scaling at three loops.