We study the role of D-terms in supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. By carefully analyzing the SUSY multiplets containing various conserved currents in theories with global symmetries, we obtain a number of constraints on the renormalization group flow in supersymmetric field theories. Under broad assumptions, these results imply that there are no SUSY-breaking vacua, not even metastable ones, with parametrically large D-terms. This explains the absence of such D-terms in models of dynamical SUSY-breaking. There is, however, a rich class of calculable models which generate comparable D-terms and F-terms through a variety of non-perturbative effects; these D-terms can be non-abelian. We give several explicit examples of such models, one of which is a new calculable limit of the 3-2 model.
Inspired by the tachyon-free non-supersymmetric heterotic SO(16)xSO(16) string we consider a special class of non-supersymmetric field theories: Those that can be obtained from supersymmetric field theories by supersymmetry breaking twists. We argue that such theories, like their supersymmetric counter parts, may still possess some fermionic symmetries as left-overs of the super gauge transformations and have special one-loop non-renormalization properties due to holomorphicity. In addition, we extend the supergraph techniques to these theories to calculate some explicit supersymmetry-breaking…
We review the role of R symmetries in models of supersymmetric unification in four and more dimensions, and in string theory. We show that, if one demands anomaly freedom and fermion masses, only R symmetries can forbid the supersymmetric Higgs mass term mu. We then review the proof that R symmetries are not available in conventional grand unified theories (GUTs) and argue that this prevents natural solutions to the doublet-triplet splitting problem in four dimensions. On the other hand, higher-dimensional GUTs do not suffer from this problem. We briefly comment on an explicit string-derived m…
In this paper, we construct a supersymmetric composite axion (c-axion) model based on the gauge group $SU(N)\times SU(M)$, which is one possible physical application of the N=1 duality. The dual of SU(M) is interpreted as the color gauge group. We illustrate the existence of c-axion for the case of one dual quark in the dual gauge group $SU(\tilde M)$.
We reveal a dynamical SU(2) symmetry in the asymptotic description of supersymmetric matrix models. We also consider a recursive approach for determining the ground state, and point out some additional properties of the model(s).
Field theories with p-form gauge potentials can possess ``hidden'' symmetries leaving the field strengths invariant on-shell without being gauge symmetries on-shell. The relevance of such symmetries to supersymmetric models is discussed. They provide central charges of supersymmetry algebras, play a particular role in duality relations, and lead to peculiar interactions. A multiplet of N=2 supersymmetry in four dimensions with two hidden central charges is presented.
We investigate the additional symmetries of several supersymmetric KP hierarchies: the SKP hierarchy of Manin and Radul, the $\hbox{SKP}_2$ hierarchy, and the Jacobian SKP hierarchy. In all three cases we find that the algebra of symmetries is isomorphic to the algebra of superdifferential operators, or equivalently $\SW_{1+\infty}$. These results seem to suggest that despite their realization depending on the dynamics, the additional symmetries are kinematical in nature.
Nonrenormalizable couplings in supergravity-coupled supersymmetric theories can give rise to power-law divergences that destabilize the weak-scale hierarchy. For the case of the standard-model gauge group, the problem can arise in theories with \321 gauge-singlet chiral superfields. The minimal supersymmetric standard model is free from such destabilizing divergences.
It is shown that the one-loop ultraviolet divergences in renormalizable supersymmetric theories can be regulated by the introduction of heavy Pauli-Villars chiral supermultiplets, provided the generators of the gauge group are traceless in the matter representation. The procedure is extended to include supersymmetric gauged nonlinear sigma models.
We construct a class of quantum mechanical theories which are invariant under fermionic transformations similar to supersymmetry transformations. The generators of the transformations in this case, however, satisfy a BRST-like algebra.
The Hilbert spaces of supersymmetric systems admit symmetries which are often related to the topology and geometry of the (target) field-space. Here, we study certain (2,2)-supersymmetric systems in 2-dimensional spacetime which are closely related to superstring models. They all turn out to posess some hitherto unexploited and geometrically and topologically unobstructed symmetries, providing new tools for studying the topology and geometry of superstring target spacetimes, and so the dynamics of the effective field theory in these.
A systematic study of large N expansion in supersymmetric theories are given. Supersymmetric O(N) non-linear sigma model in two and three dimensions, massless and massive supersymmetric QCD with $N_{f}<N_{c}-1$ and supergravity models are analyzed in detail. Our main motivation is to discuss how the previously studied mechanism for dynamical generation of gaugino condensation and superpotential is realized in the framework of large N expansion.
S-dualities in scale invariant N=2 supersymmetric field theories are derived by embedding those theories in asymptotically free N=2 theories with higher rank gauge groups. S-duality transformations on the coupling of the scale invariant theory follow from global symmetries acting on the Coulomb branch of the higher rank theory. Since these global symmetries are exact in the asymptotically free theory, this shows that S-duality is an exact equivalence of N=2 theories and not just a property of their supersymmetric states.
We give necessary criteria for N=1 supersymmetric theories to be in a smoothly confining phase without chiral symmetry breaking and with a dynamically generated superpotential. Using our general arguments we find all such confining SU and Sp theories with a single gauge group and no tree level superpotential.
We apply Kac's theory of elements of finite order (EFO) in Lie groups to the description of discrete gauge symmetries in various supersymmetric grand unified models. Taking into account the discrete anomaly cancellation conditions, we identify the EFO which generate certain matter parities in the context of the supersymmetric $SO(10)$ and $E_6$ models.
We review some of the recent work on the dynamics of four dimensional, supersymmetric gauge theories. The kinematics are largely determined by holomorphy and the dynamics are governed by duality. The results shed light on the phases of gauge theories. Some results and interpretations which have not been published before are also included.
We briefly discuss the differences between considering the gauge coupling as a constant or as a field, the dilaton, in N=1 supersymmetric theories. We emphasize the differences regarding supersymmetry breaking. Recent developments on the nonperturbative dynamics of these theories provide new ideas on the induced dilaton potential and its stabilization.
At an elementary level, we present some non-perturbative aspects of non-abelian gauge theories in four dimensional space-time. Some rigorous results have been obtained in the framework of supersymmetric theories, and a very rich physics related to the strong-coupling dynamics of gauge fields has been discovered. Some of the new phenomena which appeared may play a significant role in future phenomenological models. However, quantitative computations in non-supersymmetric theories, like quantum chromodynamics, is out of reach for the moment.
I give an introductory review of recent, fascinating developments in supersymmetric gauge theories. I explain pedagogically the miraculous properties of supersymmetric gauge dynamics allowing one to obtain exact solutions in many instances. Various dynamical regimes emerging in supersymmetric Quantum Chromodynamics and its generalizations are discussed. I emphasize those features that have a chance of survival in QCD and those which are drastically different in supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric gauge theories. Unlike most of the recent reviews focusing almost entirely on the progress in ex…
We discuss various continuous and discrete symmetries of the supersymmetric simple harmonic oscillator (SHO) in one (0 + 1)-dimension of spacetime and show their relevance in the context of mathematics of differential geometry. We show the existence of a novel set of discrete symmetries in the theory which has, hitherto, not been discussed in the literature on theoretical aspects of SHO. We also point out the physical relevance of our present investigation.
We consider specific examples of $\mathcal{N}$ = 2 supersymmetric quantum mechanical models and list out all the novel symmetries. In each case, we show the existence of two sets of discrete symmetries that correspond to the Hodge duality operator of differential geometry. Thus, we are able to provide a proof of the conjecture which endorses the existence of more than one discrete symmetry transformation as the analogue of Hodge duality operation. Finally, we extend our analysis to a more general case and derive on-shell nilpotent symmetries within the framework of supervariable approach.
We construct an N=2 supersymmetric generalization of the N=1 supercurrent formalism of Komargodski and Seiberg (KS) and use it to show that N=2 theories with linear superconformal anomalies cannot break SUSY under certain broad assumptions. This result suggests that there are no metastable SUSY breaking vacua in a large class of theories that includes N=2 Super Yang-Mills (SYM).
We compute the form of the Lagrangian of N=1 supersymmetric theories with gauged axion symmetries. It turns out that there appear generalized Chern-Simons terms that were not considered in previous superspace formulations of general N=1 theories. Such gaugings appear in supergravities arising from flux compactifications of superstrings, as well as from Scherk-Schwarz generalized dimensional reduction in M-theory. We also present the dual superspace formulation where axion chiral multiplets are dualized into linear multiplets.
We discuss a set of novel discrete symmetry transformations of the N = 4 supersymmetric quantum mechanical model of a charged particle moving on a sphere in the background of Dirac magnetic monopole. The usual five continuous symmetries (and their conserved Noether charges) and two discrete symmetries together provide the physical realizations of the de Rham cohomological operators of differential geometry. We have also exploited the supervariable approach to derive the nilpotent N = 4 SUSY transformations and provided the geometrical interpretation in the language of translational generators …
We revisit the novel symmetries in $\mathcal{N}$ = 2 supersymmetric (SUSY) quantum mechanical (QM) models by considering specific examples of coupled systems. Further, we extend our analysis to a general case and list out all the novel symmetries. In each case, we show the existence of two sets of discrete symmetries that correspond to the Hodge duality operator of differential geometry. Thus, we are able to provide a proof of the conjecture which points out the existence of more than one set of discrete symmetry transformations corresponding to the Hodge duality operator. Moreover, we derive …
We discuss a set of novel discrete symmetries of a free N = 2 supersymmetric (SUSY) quantum mechanical system which is the limiting case of a widely-studied interacting SUSY model of a charged particle constrained to move on a sphere in the background of a Dirac magnetic monopole. The usual continuous symmetries of this model provide the physical realization of the de Rham cohomological operators of differential geometry. The interplay between the novel discrete symmetries and usual continuous symmetries leads to the physical realization of relationship between the (co-)exterior derivatives of…
Supersymmetry is studied in 2+1 dimensions. In addition to the multiplets corresponding to those in 3+1 dimensions the Clifford algebra allows an extra set. When the extra chiral multiplet is included, formulating supersymmetric QED3 in the manner of Wess and Zumino yields a lagrangian with a richer 'chiral' symmetry than that derived from supersymmetric QED by dimensional reduction.
We analyze the global symmetries of ${\cal N}=4$ supersymmetric mechanics involving $4n$-dimensional Quaternion-Kähler (QK) $1D$ sigma models on projective spaces $\mathbb{H}{\rm H}^n$ and $\mathbb{H}{\rm P}^n$ as the bosonic core. All Noether charges associated with global worldline symmetries are shown to vanish as a result of equations of motion, which implies that we deal with a severely constrained hamiltonian system. The complete hamiltonian analysis of the bosonic sector is performed.
The discrete symmetry transformations of the N=2 supersymmetric (n,m)-GNLS hierarchy are constructed. Their bosonic limit is analyzed and new discrete symmetries of the modified GNLS hierarchy are derived. The explicit relations connecting the integrable hierarchy, produced by the junction of the Lax operators for the N=2 supersymmetric a=4 KdV and (n-1,m)-GNLS hierarchies, to the N=2 supersymmetric (n,m)-GNLS hierarchy are established.
In supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics with N_c-colors and N_f-flavors of quarks, our effective superpotential provides the alternative description to the Seiberg's N=1 duality at least for N_f>=N_c+2, where spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetries leads to SU(N_c)_{L+R}xSU(N_f-N_c)_LXSU(N_f-N_c)_R as a nonabelian chiral symmetry. The anomaly-matching is ensured by the presence of Nambu-Goldstone superfields associated with this breaking and the instanton contributions are properly equipped in the effective superpotential.
We study additional non-isospectral symmetries of constrained (reduced) N=2 supersymmetric KP hierarchies of integrable ``soliton''-like evolution equations. These symmetries are shown to form an infinite-dimensional non-Abelian superloop superalgebra. Furthermore we study the general Darboux-Backlund (DB) transformations (including adjoint-DB and binary DB) of N=2 super- KP hierarchies preserving (most of) the additional symmetries. Also we derive the explicit form of the general DB (N=2 ``super- soliton''-like) solutions in the form of generalized Wronskian-like super-determinants.
We study the structure of asymptotic symmetries in N=1+1 supersymmetric extension of three-dimensional gravity with torsion. Using a natural generalization of the bosonic anti-de Sitter asymptotic conditions, we show that the asymptotic Poisson bracket algebra of the canonical generators has the form of two independent super-Virasoro algebras with different central charges.
We present more examples of dual N=1 SUSY gauge theories. This set of theories is connected by flows to both Seiberg's and Kutasov's dual theories. This provides a unifying picture of the various dual theories. We investigate the dual theories, their flat directions and mass perturbations.
We explicitly constructed the generators of $SU(n+1)$ group which commute with the supercharges of N=4 supersymmetric $\mathbb{CP}^n$ mechanics in the background U(n) gauge fields. The corresponding Hamiltonian can be represented as a direct sum of two Casimir operators: one Casimir operator on $SU(n+1)$ group contains our bosonic and fermionic coordinates and momenta, while the second one, on the SU(1,n) group, is constructed from isospin degrees of freedom only.
We calculate partition functions for supersymmetric heterotic theories on Melvin background with Wilson line. These functions coincide with partition functions for some of non-supersymmetric heterotic theories in appropriate limits. This suggests that non-supersymmetric heterotic theories are equivalent to supersymmetric theories on supersymmetry-breaking backgrounds, just as in the case of recently conjectured IIA-0A duality.
This paper is devoted to the systematic study of additional (non- isospectral) symmetries of constrained (reduced) supersymmetric integrable hierarchies of KP type- the so called SKP_(R;M_B,M_F) models. The latter are supersymmetric extensions of ordinary constrained KP hierarchies which contain as special cases basic integrable systems such as (m)KdV, AKNS, Fordy-Kulish, Yajima- Oikawa etc.. As a first main result it is shown that any SKP_(R;M_B,M_F) hierarchy possesses two different mutually (anti-)commuting types of superloop superalgebra additional symmetries corresponding to the positive-…
It is shown that all affine Toda theories admit (1,0) supersymmetric extensions. The construction is based on classical Lie algebras and supersymmetric massive sigma models. The supersymmetrized affine Toda theories have a unique, supersymmetric vacuum, their mass matrix is well defined and their energy functional is positive semi-definite.
Based on the systematic Hamiltonian and superfield approaches we construct the deformed $\mathcal{N}=4,8$ supersymmetric mechanics on Kähler manifolds interacting with constant magnetic field, and study their symmetries. At first we construct the deformed $\mathcal{N}=4,8$ supersymmetric Landau problem via minimal coupling of standard (undeformed) $\mathcal{N}=4,8$ supersymmetric free particle systems on Kähler manifold with constant magnetic field. We show that the initial "flat" supersymmetries are necessarily deformed to $SU(2|1)$ and $SU(4|1)$ supersymmetries, with the magnetic field playi…
We construct the duality groups for N=2 Supersymmetric QCD with gauge group SU(2n+1) and N_f=4n+2 hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation. The groups are generated by two elements $S$ and $T$ that satisfy a relation $(STS^{-1}T)^{2n+1}=1$. Thus, the groups are not subgroups of $SL(2,Z)$. We also construct automorphic functions that map the fundamental region of the group generated by $T$ and $STS$ to the Riemann sphere. These automorphic functions faithfully represent the duality symmetry in the Seiberg-Witten curve.
The aim of these notes is to provide a short introduction to supersymmetric theories: supersymmetric quantum mechanics, Wess-Zumino models and supersymmetric gauge theories. A particular emphasis is put on the underlying structures and non-perturbative effects in N=1, N=2 and N=4 Yang-Mills theories. (Extended version of lectures given at the TROISIEME CYCLE DE LA PHYSIQUE EN SUISSE ROMANDE)
We investigate the various properties Janus supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. A novel vacuum structure is found and BPS monopoles and dyons are studied. Less supersymmetric Janus theories found before are derived by a simpler method. In addition, we find the supersymmetric theories when the coupling constant depends on two and three spatial coordinates.
We consider the N=1 supersymmetric kink on a circle, i.e., on a finite interval with boundary or transition conditions which are locally invisible. For Majorana fermions, the single-particle Dirac Hamiltonian as a differential operator obeys simultaneously the three discrete symmetries of charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal. However, no single locally invisible transition condition can satisfy all three. When calculating sums over zero-point energies by mode number regularization, this gives a new rationale for a previous suggestion that one has to average over different choices of b…
Manifestly invariant renormalization scheme for supersymmetric gauge theories is proposed. This scheme is applied to supersymmetric quantum electrodynamics.
We discuss non-conformal non-supersymmetric large N gauge theories with vanishing vacuum energy density to all orders in perturbation theory. These gauge theories can be obtained via a field theory limit of Type IIB D3-branes embedded in orbifolded space-times. We also discuss gravity in this setup.
Starting from Seiberg's electric-magnetic duality for supersymmetric QCD, we construct dual pairs of non-supersymmetric gauge theories. This is accomplished by first taking the large N limit of supersymmetric QCD and its dual partner and then performing a special ``orbifold projection'' recently introduced by Kachru and Silverstein. We argue that in the large N limit the two projected theories remain dual. The non-supersymmetric gauge theories which can be studied in this fashion have non-supersymmetric field content, chiral fermions and exactly massless scalar matter.
We show how to extend the 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions to discrete symmetries. We check these discrete anomaly matching conditions on several proposed low-energy spectra of certain strongly interacting gauge theories. The excluded examples include the proposed chirally symmetric vacuum of pure N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories, certain non-supersymmetric confining theories and some self-dual N=1 supersymmetric theories based on exceptional groups.
We consider the ultra-violet divergence structure of general noncommutative supersymmetric $U(N_c)$ gauge theories, and seek theories which are all-orders finite.
We present new supersymmetric extensions of Conformal Toda and $A^{(1)}_N$ Affine Toda field theories. These new theories are constructed using methods similar to those that have been developed to find supersymmetric extensions of two-dimensional bosonic sigma models with a scalar potential. In particular, we show that the Conformal Toda field theory admits a (1,1)-supersymmetric extension, and the $A^{(1)}_N$ Affine Toda field admits a (1,0)-supersymmetric extension.
In this talk I review some recent results concerning multi-instanton calculus in supersymmetric field theories. More in detail, I will show how these computations can be efficiently performed using the formalism of topological field theories.
We discuss the ways of constructing the exact superpotential for N=1 supersymmetric theories and propose a new approach. As a consequence, a new structure of the superpotential is found.
A supersymmetric string model in the D=11 superspace maximally extended by antisymmetric tensor bosonic coordinates, $Σ^{(528|32)}$, is proposed. It possesses 30 $κ$-symmetries and 32 target space supersymmetries. The usual preserved supersymmetry-$κ$-symmetry correspondence suggests that it describes the excitations of a BPS state preserving all but two supersymmetries. The model can also be formulated in any $Σ^{({n(n+1)\over 2}|n)}$ superspace, n=32 corresponding to D=11. It may also be treated as a `higher--spin generalization' of the usual Green--Schwarz superstring. Although the global s…
We give a recipe relating holomorphic quantities in supersymmetric field theory to their descendants in non-supersymmetric Z_2 orbifold field theories. This recipe, consistent with a recent proposal of Strassler, gives exact results for bifermion condensates, domain wall tensions and gauge coupling constants in the planar limit of the orbifold theories.
Supersymmetric field theories on noncommutative spaces are constructed. We present two different representations of noncommutative space, but we can obtain supersymmetry algebla and supersymmetric Yang-Mills action independent of its representation. As a result, we will see that the action has a close relationship with IIB matrix model.
