Spencer Cohomology and 11-Dimensional Supergravity

We recover the classification of the maximally supersymmetric bosonic backgrounds of 11-dimensional supergravity by Lie algebraic means. We classify all filtered deformations of the Z\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${{\mathbb{Z}}}$$\end{document}-graded subalgebrash=h-2⊕h-1⊕h0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathfrak{h}=\mathfrak{h}_{-2} \oplus\mathfrak{h}_{-1} \oplus\mathfrak{h}_{0}}$$\end{document} of the Poincaré superalgebra g=g-2⊕g-1⊕g0=V⊕S⊕so(V)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{g}_{-2} \oplus\mathfrak{g}_{-1} \oplus\mathfrak{g}_{0}=V\oplus S\oplus \mathfrak{so}(V)}$$\end{document} which differ only in zero degree, that is h0⊂g0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathfrak{h}_0\subset\mathfrak{g}_0}$$\end{document} and hj=gj\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathfrak{h}_\mathfrak{j}=\mathfrak{g}_\mathfrak{j}}$$\end{document} for j<0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathfrak{j}<0}$$\end{document}. Aside from the Poincaré superalgebra itself and its Z\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${{\mathbb{Z}}}$$\end{document}-graded subalgebras, there are only three other Lie superalgebras, which are the symmetry superalgebras of the non-flat maximally supersymmetric backgrounds. In passing we identify the gravitino variation with (a component of) a Spencer cocycle.