# Is the conjecture about $E(11)$ and M-theory (West's conjecture) generally accepted?

I was reading this paper by West, in which it is argued that:

Eleven dimensional supergravity can be described by a non-linear realisation based on the group $E\left(11\right)$

From which they conjecture that $E\left(11\right)$ can be related to M-theory, too. This seems rather weird to me, given that $E\left(11\right)$ is a rather ugly group, given that it has a cartan determinant of $-2$. And the Cartan Matrix looks like:

$$\left[ {\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} 2&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{} \\ { - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{} \\ {}&{ - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{ - 1} \\ {}&{}&{ - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{} \\ {}&{}&{}&{ - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{} \\ {}&{}&{}&{}&{ - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{}&{} \\ {}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{ - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{} \\ {}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{ - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{}&{} \\ {}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{ - 1}&2&{ - 1}&{} \\ {}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{ - 1}&2&{} \\ {}&{}&{ - 1}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&{}&2 \end{array}} \right]$$

So, is this paper well-accepted in the string community? .

I cannot speak to whether or not $E_{11}$ is "ugly" but if you see, e.g. arXiv:1308.1673, West's paper is referred to as an "ambitious" proposal. Moreover, West's paper has been cited over 250 times, which indicates it's fairly well-known. (This would be classified as "famous" according to inspirehep.net.)