Higher spin N=8 supergravity

The product of two N=8 supersingletons yields an infinite tower of massless states of higher spin in four dimensional anti de Sitter space. All the states with spin s>1/2 correspond to generators of Vasiliev's super higher spin algebra shsE (8 vertical bar 4) which contains the D=4, N=8 anti de Sitter superalgebra OSp(8|4). Gauging the higher spin algebra and introducing a matter multiplet in a quasi-adjoint representation leads to a consistent and fully nonlinear equations of motion as shown sometime ago by Vasiliev. We show the embedding of the N=8 AdS supergravity equations of motion in the full system at the linearized level and discuss the implications for the embedding of the interacting theory. We furthermore speculate that the boundary N=8 singleton field theory yields the dynamics of the N=8 AdS supergravity in the bulk, including all higher spin massless fields, in an unbroken phase of M-theory. (author)