Cartan-Weyl 3-algebras and the BLG theory II: strong-semisimplicity and generalized Cartan-Weyl 3-algebras

Abstract

One of the most important questions in the Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson (BLG) theory of multiple M2-branes is the choice of the Lie 3-algebra. The Lie 3-algebra should be chosen such that the corresponding BLG model is unitary and admits fuzzy 3-sphere as a solution. In this paper we propose a new condition: the Lie 3-algebras of use must be connected to the semisimple Lie algebras describing the gauge symmetry of D-branes via a certain reduction condition. We show that this reduction condition leads to a natural generalization of the Cartan-Weyl 3-algebras introduced in [1]. Similar to a Cartan-Weyl 3-algebra, a generalized Cartan-Weyl 3-algebra processes a set of step generators characterized by non-degenerate roots. However, its Cartan subalgebra is non-abelian in general. We give reasons why having a non-abelian Cartan subalgebra may be just right to allow for fuzzy 3-sphere solution in the corresponding BLG models. We propose that generalized Cartan-Weyl 3-algebras is the right class of metric Lie 3-algebras to be used in the BLG theory.