Wilson loops in strongly coupled noncommutative gauge theories

We discuss Wilson loop averages in 4-dimensional noncommutative super Yang-Mills theory using the dual supergravity description. We postulate that the Wilson loops are located at the minimum length scale R in the fifth radial coordinate. We find that they exhibit a crossover from Coulomb type of behavior for large loops, for which noncommutativity is unimportant, to area law for small loops, for which noncommutativity effects are large. The string tension, which can be read off from the area law, is controlled by the noncommutativity scale. The crossover itself, however, appears to involve loops of a size of order R which is much larger than the noncommutativity scale. The existence of the area law in noncommutative super Yang-Mills theory which persists up to a large crossover length scale provides further evidence for a connection to an underlying string theory.