On the effective N=1 supergravity of M-theory

In the low-energy limit, M-theory compactified on S-1/Z(2) is formulated in terms of Bianchi identities with sources localized at orbifold singulariti es and anomaly-cancelling counterterms to the Wilson effective Lagrangian. Compactifying to four dimensions on a Calabi-Yau space leads to N = 1 local supersymmetry. We derive a formulation of the effective supergravity which explicitly relates four-dimensional supergravity multiplets and field equa tions with these fundamental M-theory aspects. This formulation proves conv enient for the introduction in the effective supergravity of non-perturbati ve M-theory contributions. It also applies to the universal sector of gener ic compactifications with N = 1 supersymmetry. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.