Brane rotating symmetries and the fivebrane equations of motion

We show that the fully covariant equations of motion for the M-theory fiveb rane can be interpreted as charge conservation equations. The associated ch arges induce 'shift'-symmetries of the scalar, spinor and gauge-fields of t he fivebrane, so allowing an interpretation of all these fields as Goldston e fields. We also find that the fivebrane possesses a new symmetry that is part of the GL(32) automorphism group of the eleven dimensional supersymmet ry algebra. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved .