The M5-brane Hamiltonian

TL;DR

This paper derives the Hamiltonian form of the M5-brane action in eleven-dimensional supergravity, introduces a new covariant Lagrangian with a dynamical tension, and discusses its symmetries and peculiarities.

Contribution

It provides the Hamiltonian formulation of the M5-brane and a novel covariant Lagrangian with dynamical tension, addressing previous limitations.

Findings

Hamiltonian form of M5-brane action derived

New covariant Lagrangian with dynamical tension proposed

Action invariant under superisometries of background

Abstract

We obtain the Hamiltonian form of the worldvolume action for the M5-brane in a general D=11 supergravity background. We use this result to obtain a new version of the covariant M5-brane Lagrangian in which the tension appears as a dynamical variable, although this Lagrangian has some unsatisfactory features which we trace to peculiarities of the null limit. We also show that the M5-brane action is invariant under all (super)isometries of the background.