(2,0) Supersymmetry and the Light-Cone Description of M5-branes

TL;DR

The paper analyzes the six-dimensional $(2,0)$ theory relevant to M5-branes by employing a non-Abelian $(2,0)$ system and performing a null reduction. This reduction yields a quantum-mechanical dynamics on the instanton moduli space, with the Hamiltonian given by ${\cal P}_-$ and a potential encoding Coulomb-branch physics and background couplings, thereby reproducing and generalizing the light-cone quantization of the $(2,0)$ theory. The authors derive conserved charges and the supersymmetry algebra in the reduced framework, and work out a concrete one-instanton example using ADHM data to illustrate the metric on moduli space, the boundary contributions, and the vanishing of certain central charges under consistency conditions. They argue that this approach provides a Lorentz-covariant bridge between space-like compactifications to five-dimensional MSYM and the light-cone picture, consistent with Seiberg's boosted description, and outline directions for extending to richer moduli spaces and potential time-like reductions.

Abstract

In 1007.2982 a novel system of equations which propagate in one null and four space directions were obtained as the on-shell conditions for the six-dimensional (2,0) superalgebra. In this paper we show how this system reduces to one-dimensional motion on instanton moduli space. Quantization leads to the previous light-cone proposal of the (2,0) theory, generalized to include a potential that arises on the Coulomb branch as well as couplings to background gauge and self-dual two-form fields.