On gauged maximal d  =  8 supergravities

We study the gauging of maximal d  =  8 supergravity using the embedding tensor formalism. We focus on SO(3) gaugings, study all the possible choices of gauge fields and construct explicitly the bosonic actions (including the complicated Chern–Simons terms) for all these choices, which are parametrized by a parameter associated to the 8-dimensional SL$(2,R)$ duality group that relates all the possible choices which are, ultimately, equivalent from the purely 8-dimensional point of view.

Our result proves that the theory constructed by Salam and Sezgin by Scherk–Schwarz compactification of d  =  11 supergravity and the theory constructed in Alonso-Alberca (2001 Nucl. Phys. B 602 329) by dimensional reduction of the so called 'massive 11-dimensional supergravity' proposed by Meessen and Ortín in (1999 Nucl. Phys. B 541 195) are indeed related by an SL$(2,R)$ duality even though they have two completely different 11-dimensional origins. (paper)