Candidate counterterms break Noether-Gaillard-Zumino E_{7(7)} current conservation in N=8 supergravity in four dimensions. Bossard and Nicolai proposed a scheme for deforming the subsector involving vector fields in a Lorentz covariant manner, so as
to restore duality. They argued that there must exist an extension of this deformation to the full theory that preserves supersymmetry. We show that it is not possible to deform the maximal supergravity to restore E_{7(7)} duality, while maintaining both general covariance and N=8 supersymmetry, as was proposed. Deformation of N=8 supergravity requires higher spins and multiple gravitons, which presents a concrete obstacle to this proposal.
We present new models of non-linear electromagnetism which satisfy the Noether-Gaillard-Zumino current conservation and are, therefore, self-dual. The new models differ from the Born-Infeld-type models in that they deform the Maxwell theory starting
with terms like $lambda (partial F)^{4}$. We provide a recursive algorithm to find all higher order terms in the action of the form $lambda^{n} partial ^{4n} F^{2n+2} $, which are necessary for the U(1) duality current conservation. We use one of these models to find a self-dual completion of the $lambda (partial F)^{4}$ correction to the open string action. We discuss the implication of these findings for the issue of UV finiteness of ${cal N}=8$ supergravity.
