Amplitudes for Multiple M5 Branes

TL;DR

This paper investigates on-shell amplitudes for multiple M5 branes, revealing that six-dimensional tensor amplitudes are gravitational, while five-dimensional massive amplitudes with (2,0) supersymmetry match M5 brane states and suggest new fermionic symmetries.

Contribution

It introduces non-gravitational five-dimensional massive amplitudes with (2,0) supersymmetry that describe multiple M5 branes and explores related symmetries and theories.

Findings

Six-dimensional tensor amplitudes are gravitational.

Five-dimensional massive amplitudes match M5 brane states.

Hints of fermionic symmetry in (2,0) theory.

Abstract

We study N=(m,0) super-Poincare invariant six-dimensional massless and five-dimensional massive on-shell amplitudes. We demonstrate that in six dimensions, all possible three-point amplitudes involving tensor multiplets are necessarily embedded in gravitational theories. For non-gravitational amplitudes we consider instead five-dimensional massive amplitudes with N=(2,0) supersymmetry, aiming at describing the world volume theory of multiple M5 branes compactified on M^{4,1}x S^1. We find non-gravitational amplitudes whose on-shell degrees of freedom are shown to match those of the massive particle states that arise from self-dual strings wrapping a circle. Along the way we find interesting hints of a fermionic symmetry in the (2,0) theory, which accompanies the self-dual tensor gauge symmetry. We also discuss novel theories with (3,0) and (4,0) supersymmetry.