1996/07/14 by Michio Kaku, Kaku, Michio
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9607111
4 pages; requires sprocl.sty (World Scientific)
arxiv created 1996/07/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
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 → ∞. 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.