Some Non-Renormalization Theorems for Higher Derivative Operators

Abstract

It has been argued that a certain large $N$ matrix model may provide a non-perturbative definition of $M$-theory. This model is the truncation to $0+1$ dimensions of ten-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. It is crucial to this identification that terms with four derivatives in the effective action for the quantum mechanics should not be renormalized. We offer a perturbative proof of this result.