No cosmological D = 11 supergravity

We show, in two complementary ways, that D = 11 supergravity - in contrast to all its lower dimensional versions - forbids a cosmological extension. First, we linearize the putative model about an Anti de Sitter background and show that it cannot even support a ``global'' supersymmetry invariance; hence there is no Noether construction that can lead to a local supersymmetry. This is true with the usual 4-form field as well as for a ``dual'', 7-form, starting point. Second, a cohomology argument, starting from the original full nonlinear theory, establishes the absence of deformations involving spin 3/(2) mass and cosmological terms. In both approaches, it is the form field that is responsible for the obstruction. ``Dualizing'' the cosmological constant to an 11-form field also fails.

Publication:

Physics Letters B

Pub Date:

February 1997

DOI:

10.1016/S0370-2693(97)00639-4

10.48550/arXiv.hep-th/9704131

arXiv: