Continuous distributions of D3-branes and gauged supergravity

States on the Coulomb branch ofN = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory are studied from the point of view of gauged supergravity in ve dimensions. These supersymmetric solutions provide examples of consistent truncation from type-IIB supergravity in ten dimensions. A mass gap for states created by local operators and perfect screening for external quarks arise in the supergravity approximation. Weoeraninterpretationofthesesurprising featuresintermsofensembles ofbrane distributions.