No label defined (Q4352776)

According to the string-membrane duality proposal, there is a ``solitonic'' sector of string theory that would best be described by a heterotic super five-brane theory. This theory does not yet exist since, apart from the unsolved problem of membrane quantization, not even the precise structure of the heterotic 5-brane Lagrangian is known. The paper reviews work done by the author and collaborators on two issues that arise at this semiclassical level. One topic is the effective bosonic \(p\)-brane theory that emerges when the fermions are integrated out, leaving behind a Wess-Zumino term in the world-sheet Lagrangian as a consequence of the chiral gauge anomaly. The cancellation of the anomaly requires a modification of the gauge algebra of the inclusion of a \(U(1)\) extension term. The other topic is the local fermionic worldsheet symmetry known as \(\kappa\)-symmetry, which is necessary for relativistic covariance. This is discussed in the framework of double dimensional reduction, where a lower-dimensional \(\kappa\)-symmetry is obtained by a consistent dimensional reduction from a higher super \(p\)-brane theory. The paper concludes with a discussion of open problems. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0867.00017].