Norcor vs the Abominable Gauge Completion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a systematic method using normal coordinates to expand the 11-dimensional supermembrane action in supergravity backgrounds, simplifying calculations compared to previous gauge completion techniques.

Contribution

It presents a novel normal coordinate approach for expanding supermembrane actions, avoiding gauge ambiguities and applicable to various branes in different dimensions.

Findings

Systematic expansion of supermembrane action achieved

Method applicable to other branes and dimensions

Simplifies calculations compared to gauge completion

Abstract

We use normal coordinate methods to obtain the expansion with respect to fermionic coordinates of the 11-dimensional supermembrane action in a supergravity background. Likewise, expansions for various branes in other dimensions can be obtained. These methods allow a systematic and unambiguous expansion of the vielbein to any order in the fermionic coordinates and avoid the complications encountered in the gauge completion approach.