English

A Massive Study of M2-brane Proposals

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-11-26 v2

Abstract

We test the proposals for the worldvolume theory of M2-branes by studying its maximally supersymmetric mass-deformation. We check the simplest prediction for the mass-deformed theory on N M2-branes: that there should be a set of discrete vacua in one-to-one correspondence with partitions on N. For the mass-deformed Lorentzian three-algebra theory, we find only a single classical vacuum, casting doubt on its M2-brane interpretation. For the mass-deformed ABJM theory, we do find a discrete set of solutions, but these are more numerous than predicted. We discuss possible resolutions of this puzzling discrepancy. We argue that the classical vacuum solutions of the mass-deformed ABJM theory display properties of fuzzy three-spheres, as expected from their gravitational dual interpretation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0807.1074,
  title  = {A Massive Study of M2-brane Proposals},
  author = {Jaume Gomis and Diego Rodriguez-Gomez and Mark Van Raamsdonk and Herman Verlinde},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.1074},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

33 pages, LaTeX; references and acknowledgment added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:58:10.084Z