D3 Brane(s) in AdS₅ x S⁵ and N =4,2,1 SYM

Recently, Douglas and Taylor proposed to identify the Higgs vev of the Coulomb branch of the 4 dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills theory with the positions of D3 branes in the AdS_5 x S^5 string theory. We extend this identification to more general configurations that preserve less supersymmetry. We show that a single D3 brane in AdS_5 x S^5 string theory can break the spacetime supersymmetry to 1/4 or even 1/8. Such configurations, interpretated as backgrounds of the SYM, also break the N=4 superconformal symmetry of SYM to 1/4 or 1/8, giving N=2 or N=1. We discuss the implications of this correspondence. We also present other BPS D3-brane configurations that preserve 1/8 supersymmetry corresponding to N=1 on the SYM side.