Abstract

We introduce a Nambu-Poisson bracket in the geometrical description of the D = 11 M5-brane. This procedure allows us, under some assumptions, to eliminate the local degrees of freedom of the antisymmetric field in the M5-brane Hamiltonian and to express it as a D = 11 p-brane theory invariant under symplectomorphisms. The explicit expression of the Hamiltonian is obtained. The existence of nontrivial physical configurations annihilating the energy density is shown. Finally, a regularization of the M5-brane in terms of a multi D1-brane theory invariant under the SU(N) x SU(N) group in the limit when N --> infinity is constructed. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.