M theory as a holographic field theory

We suggest that M theory could be nonperturbatively equivalent to a local quantum field theory. More precisely, we present a "renormalizable" gauge theory in eleven dimensions, and show that it exhibits various properties expected of quantum M theory, most notably the holographic principle of 't Hooft and Susskind. The theory also satisfies Mach's principle: A macroscopically large space-time land the inertia of low-energy excitations) is generated by a large number of "partons" in the microscopic theory. We argue that at low energies in large eleven dimensions, the theory should be effectively described by eleven-dimensional super gravity. This effective description breaks down at much lower energies than naively expected, precisely when the system saturates the Bekenstein bound on energy density. We show that the number of partons scales like the area of the surface surrounding the system, and discuss how this holographic reduction of degrees of freedom affects the cosmological constant problem. We propose the holographic field theory as a candidate for a covariant, nonperturbative formulation of quantum M theory. [S0556-2821(99)01504-0].