A covariantisation of M5-brane action in dual formulation

TL;DR

This paper develops a covariant M5-brane action in dual formulation using PST technique with auxiliary fields, enabling manifest diffeomorphism invariance and connection to previous formulations.

Contribution

It introduces a new covariant M5-brane action employing a geometrical reduction of auxiliary fields, extending previous dual formulation approaches.

Findings

Constructed a manifestly diffeomorphic M5-brane action

Reduced to earlier non-covariant formulations using PST symmetry

Discussed double dimensional reduction to D4-brane

Abstract

We construct a manifestly diffeomorphic M5-brane action in dual formulation coupled to an eleven-dimensional supergravity target space. The covariantisation is carried out by using (generalised) PST technique with 5 auxiliary scalar fields, which are obtained by using a geometrical consideration as a reduction of an auxiliary 4-form of Maznytsia-Preitschopf-Sorokin. As is typical in PST-covariantised theory, our construction possesses as usual the two local PST symmetries. By using one of the local PST symmetries, the action can be reduced to the non-manifestly covariant M5-brane action in dual formulation constructed earlier by the authors. The discussion on double dimensional reduction to D4-brane, and on the comparison of on-shell action then easily follows.