Graviton dominance in quantum Kaluza-Klein eleven-dimensional supergravity

This dissertation deals with the problem of finding a solution to the quantum field equations of the Eleven-Dimensional Supergravity. A detailed description is given of the many problems that are dealt with when doing the computations. They include: path integrals for operators with negative eigenvalues, non-trivial diagonalization of functional determinants (including fermionic ones), finding the spectra for the Laplacian action on tensors defined on S/sup N/, etc. The contribution to the effective potential of the other supergravity fields - Gravitino psi/sub N/ and 3-form A/sub MNP/ - is also evaluated, for a vanishing value (m = 0) of the Freund-Rubin parameter. It is found that graviton dominance still holds in this case. Finally, some remarks and comments are made about the apparent gauge dependence of the results in the purely gravitational case