The M5-brane action revisited

We construct an alternative form of the M5-brane action in which the six-dimensional worldvolume is subject to a covariant split into 3+3 directions by a triplet of auxiliary fields. We consider the relation of this action to the original form of the M5-brane action and to a Nambu-Poisson 5-brane action based on the Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson model with the gauge symmetry of volume preserving diffeomorphisms.