The membrane abelian Higgs model

We develop the first and second quantized version of a model consisting of a closed bosonic relativistic membrane coupled to a three-index gauge potential A\u3bc\u3bd\u3f1(x). The model is reparametrization invariant as well as invariant under a generalized U(1)-gauge transformation and is developed in analogy to scalar QED. We call it the membrane abelian Higgs model. For imaginary surface tension the absolute value of the membrane field has a non-vanishing vacuum expectation value and the gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken; as a consequence, the gauge field A\u3bc\u3bd\u3f1(x) acquires a mass while the Goldstone bosons disappear from the physical spectrum. However, unlike the usual Higgs mechanism, the physical spectrum consist of spin-0 (pseudoscalar) particles