Heterotic M2-branes

We construct the action for N   M2-branes on S1/Z2S1/Z2. The resulting theory has a gauge anomaly but this can be cancelled if the two fixed point planes each support 8 chiral Fermions in the fundamental of U(N)U(N). Taking the low energy limit leads to the worldsheet theory of N   free heterotic strings whose quantization induces an E8E8 spacetime gauge symmetry on each fixed point plane. Thus this paper presents a non-abelian worldvolume analogue of the classic Hořava–Witten analysis.