AdS/CFT duality at strong coupling

We study the strong-coupling limit of the AdS/CFT correspondence in the framework of a recently proposed fermionic formulation of the Bethe ansatz equations governing the gauge theory anomalous dimensions. We give examples of states that do not follow the Gubser–Klebanov–Polyakov law at a large 't Hooft coupling $\lambda$, in contrast to recent results on the quantum string Bethe equations that are valid in that regime. This result indicates that the fermionic construction cannot be trusted at large $\lambda$, although it remains an efficient tool for computing the weak-coupling expansion of anomalous dimensions.