SL(5) duality from canonical M2-brane

Abstract: We show how the SL(5) duality in M-theory is explained from a canonical analysis of M2-brane mechanics. Diffeomorphism constraints for a M2-brane coupled to supergravity background in d=4 are reformulated in a SL(5) covariant form, in which spatial diffeomorphism constraints are recast into a SL(5) vector and the generalized metric in the Hamiltonian constraint is quartic in the SL(5) generalized vielbein. The Hamiltonian for a M2 brane has the SL(5) duality symmetry in a background dependent gauge.