M-THEORY ON ADS(P)XS(11-P) AND SUPERCONFORMAL FIELD-THEORIES

We study the large N limit of the interacting superconformal field the ories associated with N M5 branes or M2 branes using the recently prop osed relation between these theories and M theory on AdS spaces. We fi rst analyze the spectrum of chiral operators of the 6d (0,2) theory as sociated with M5 branes in flat space, and find full agreement with ea rlier results obtained using its DLCQ description as quantum mechanics on a moduli space of instantons. We then perform a similar analysis f or the D-N type 6d (0,2) theories associated with M5 branes at an R-5/ Z(2) singularity, and for the 3d N = 8 superconformal field theories a ssociated with M2 branes in flat space and at an R-8/Z(2) singularity respectively. Little is known about these three theories, and our stud y yields for the first time their spectrum of chiral operators (in the large N limit). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.