Some new extrema of the scalar potential of gauged N = 8 supergravity

Abstract

Five new critical points are found for the scalar potential of gauged N = 8 supergravity. These comprise a complete list of all the extrema which induce a symmetry breaking of SO(8) to some smaller group containing SU(3). Possible relationships between solutions based on these extrema and dimensional reduction schemes are suggested. One of the new extrema may have phenomonological significance since it breaks SO(8) to SU(3) × U(1) and has gauged N = 2 supersymmetry. © 1983.