More than thirty years after its inception, maximal D=4 supergravity continues to be a fascinating theoretical edifice. Interesting open issues include the possible finiteness of the ungauged version, the connection to the worldvolume theory of M2-branes and its possible holographic applications in condensed matter system. The first example of this class of theories is the SO(8) gauged Supergravity. In there an SO(8) subgroup inside the full duality group of the theory is promoted to local symmetry group. Up to this September, the theory with it’s vacuum structure was supposed to be unique. A few weeks ago it has been discovered that this guess is indeed wrong. There is a whole class of SO(8) gauged N=8 supergravities. This seems to be true for many other types of gaugings opening interesting new possibilities. I will briefly review the basic ingredients necessary in order to construct the theory and show these new interesting findings.

University of Groningen