Light-Cone Description of (2,0) Superconformal Theories in Six Dimensions

Abstract

We study the (2,0) superconformal theories in six dimensions, which arise from the low-energy limit of k coincident 5-branes, using their discrete light-cone formulation as a superconformal quantum mechanical sigma model. We analyze the realization of the superconformal symmetry in the quantum mechanics, and the realization of primary operators. As an example we compute the spectrum of chiral primary states in symmetric Spin(5)_R representations. To facilitate the analysis we introduce and briefly discuss a new class of Lorentz non-invariant theories, which flow in the IR to the (2,0) superconformal field theories but differ from them in the UV.