Intersecting M2- and M5-branes

Abstract

If an M2-brane intersects an M5-brane the canonical Wess-Zumino action is plagued by a Dirac-anomaly, i.e. a non-integer change of the action under a change of Dirac-brane. We show that this anomaly can be eliminated at the expense of a gravitational anomaly supported on the intersection manifold. Eventually we check that the last one is cancelled by the anomaly produced by the fermions present. This provides a quantum consistency check of these intersecting configurations.