We present several non-trivial examples of the three-dimensional quantum Nambu bracket which involve square matrices or three-index objects. Our examples satisfy two fundamental properties of the classical Nambu bracket: they are skew-symmetric and they obey the Fundamental Identity. We contrast our approach to the existing literature on the quantum deformations of Nambu mechanics. We also discuss possible applications of our results in M-theory. 1

Mod. Phys. Lett. A 1989.04:1587-1595. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA @ DAVIS on 02/03/15. For personal use only.

The recent proposal on the correspondence between the N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory and string theory in the Penrose limit of the AdS 5 ×S 5 geometry involves a few puzzles from the viewpoint of holographic principle, especially in connection with the interpretation of times. To resolve these puzzles, we propose to interpret the PP-wave strings on the basis of tunneling null geodesics connecting boundaries of the AdS geometry.Our approach predicts a direct and systematic identification of the S-matrix of Euclidean string theory in the bulk with the short-distance structure of correlation functions of super Yang-Mills theory on the AdS boundary, as an extension of the ordinary relation in supergravity-CFT correspondence. Holography requires an infinite number of contact terms for interaction vertices of string field theory and constrains their forms in a way consistent with supersymmetry.

Motivated by the space-time uncertainty principle, we establish a conformal symmetry in the dynamics of D-particles. The conformal symmetry, combined with the supersymmetric non-renormalization theorem, uniquely determines the classical form of the effective action for a probe D-particle in the background of a heavy D-particle source, previously constructed by Becker-Becker-Polchinski-Tseytlin. Our results strengthen the conjecture proposed by Maldacena on the correspondence, in the case of D-particles, between the supergravity and the supersymmetric Yang-Mills matrix models in the large N-limit, the latter being the boundary conformal field theory of the former in the classical D-particle background in the near horizon limit.

Guided by the generalized conformal symmetry, we investigate the extension of AdS-CFT correspondence to the matrix model of D-particles in the large N limit. We perform a complete harmonic analysis of the bosonic linearized fluctuations around a heavy Dparticle background in IIA supergravity in 10 dimensions and find that the spectrum precisely agrees with that of the physical operators of Matrix theory. The explicit forms of two-point functions give predictions for the large N behavior of Matrix theory with some special cutoff. We discuss the possible implications of our results for the large N dynamics of D-particles and for the Matrix-theory conjecture. We find an anomalous scaling behavior with respect to the large N limit associated to the infinite momentum limit in 11 dimensions, suggesting the existence of a screening mechanism for the transverse extension of the system.