A Note on the Stability of Quantum Supermembranes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability of quantum supermembranes, demonstrating that their instability persists in the continuum theory and discussing potential experimental implications, while clarifying previous conflicting results.

Contribution

It provides a direct continuum analysis of supermembrane stability and offers heuristic insights into their experimental relevance, resolving prior discrepancies.

Findings

Supermembranes remain unstable in the continuum theory.

Unstable membranes at the Planck scale may still align with experimental observations.

Resolved earlier conflicting results on supermembrane stability.

Abstract

We re-examine the question of the stability of quantum supermembranes. In the past, the instability of supermembranes was established by using a regulator, i.e. approximating the membrane by SU(N) super Yang-Mills theory and letting $N \rightarrow \infty$. In this paper, we (a) show that the instability persists even if we directly examine the continuum theory (b) give heuristic arguments that even a theory of unstable membranes at the Planck length may still be compatible with experiment (c) resolve a certain puzzling discrepancy between earlier works on the stability of supermembranes. Presented at the 2nd International Sakharov Conference in Moscow, May 1996.