M2-brane Dynamics in the Classical Limit of the BMN Matrix Model

Abstract: We investigate the large-N limit of the BMN matrix model by analyzing the dynamics of ellipsoidal M2-branes that spin in the 11-dimensional maximally supersymmetric SO(3)xSO(6) plane-wave background. We identify finite-energy solutions by specifying the local minima of the corresponding energy functional. These configurations are static in SO(3) due to the Myers effect and rotate in SO(6) with an angular momentum that is bounded from above. As a first step towards studying their chaotic properties, we evaluate the Lyapunov exponents of their radial fluctuations.