  We consider the Pohlmeyer-reduced formulation of the AdS_5 x S^5 superstring.
It is constructed by introducing new variables which are algebraically related
to supercoset current components so that the Virasoro conditions are
automatically solved. The reduced theory is a gauged WZW model supplemented
with an integrable potential and fermionic terms that ensure its UV finiteness.
The original superstring theory and its reduced counterpart are closely related
at the classical level, and we conjecture that they remain related at the
quantum level as well, in the sense that their quantum partition functions
evaluated on respective classical solutions are equal. We provide evidence for
the validity of this conjecture at the one-loop level, i.e. at the first
non-trivial order of the semiclassical expansion near several classes of
classical solutions.
