The eleven-dimensional supermembrane revisited

TL;DR

This paper revisits the eleven-dimensional supermembrane, proposing it as the fundamental origin of type IIA superstring theory and deriving various p-brane solutions from it, thus unifying different superstring phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates that type IIA superstring theory can be viewed as a compactified 11-dimensional supermembrane theory, providing a unified framework for understanding its solitonic solutions.

Findings

Type IIA superstring is a compactified 11D supermembrane.

Black holes are Kaluza-Klein modes of 11D supergravity.

p-brane solutions derive from the 11D membrane and dual fivebrane.

Abstract

It is argued that the type IIA 10-dimensional superstring theory is actually a compactified 11-dimensional supermembrane theory in which the fundamental supermembrane is identified with the the solitonic membrane of 11-dimensional supergravity. The charged extreme black holes of the 10-dimensional type IIA string theory are interpreted as the Kaluza-Klein modes of 11-dimensional supergravity and the dual sixbranes as the analogue of Kaluza-Klein monopoles. All other p-brane solutions of the type IIA superstring theory are derived from the 11-dimensional membrane and its magnetic dual fivebrane soliton.