Null structure groups in eleven dimensions

Abstract

We classify all the structure groups which arise as subgroups of the isotropy group, $(Spin(7)\ltimes\mathbb{R}^8)\times\mathbb{R}$, of a single null Killing spinor in eleven dimensions. We construct the spaces of spinors fixed by these groups. We determine the conditions under which structure subgroups of the maximal null strucuture group $(Spin(7)\ltimes\mathbb{R}^8)\times\mathbb{R}$ may also be embedded in SU(5), and hence the conditions under which a supersymmetric spacetime admits only null, or both timelike and null, Killing spinors. We discuss how this purely algebraic material will facilitate the direct analysis of the Killing spinor equation of eleven dimensional supergravity, and the classification of supersymmetric spacetimes therein.