Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introductory overview
- 2 Elements of supersymmetry
- 3 Superspace
- 4 Harmonic analysis
- 5 N = 2 matter with infinite sets of auxiliary fields
- 6 N = 2 matter multiplets with a finite number of auxiliary fields. N = 2 duality transformations
- 7 Supersymmetric Yang–Mills theories
- 8 Harmonic supergraphs
- 9 Conformal invariance in N = 2 harmonic superspace
- 10 Supergravity
- 11 Hyper-Kähler geometry in harmonic space
- 12 N = 3 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory
- 13 Conclusions
- Appendix: Notations, conventions and useful formulas
- References
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introductory overview
- 2 Elements of supersymmetry
- 3 Superspace
- 4 Harmonic analysis
- 5 N = 2 matter with infinite sets of auxiliary fields
- 6 N = 2 matter multiplets with a finite number of auxiliary fields. N = 2 duality transformations
- 7 Supersymmetric Yang–Mills theories
- 8 Harmonic supergraphs
- 9 Conformal invariance in N = 2 harmonic superspace
- 10 Supergravity
- 11 Hyper-Kähler geometry in harmonic space
- 12 N = 3 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory
- 13 Conclusions
- Appendix: Notations, conventions and useful formulas
- References
- Index
Summary
This book is a pedagogical introduction to the harmonic superspace method in extended supersymmetry. There exist quite a few monographs, textbooks and reviews devoted to simple (or N = 1) supersymmetry, including detailed presentations of the N = 1 superfield techniques, the natural language for N = 1 supersymmetry. However, until now there has been no systematic treatment of the analogous issues in extended (N ≥ 2) supersymmetry. In view of the growing interest in extended supersymmetries, mainly inspired by the impressive developments in superstring theory during the last decade, the need for such a presentation is becoming urgent. The present book is intended to partly fill this gap, mainly with regard to the simplest extended supersymmetry, the N = 2 one. We hope to convince the reader that the natural framework for dealing with N = 2 supersymmetry is harmonic superspace, an extension of the ordinary superspace of Salam and Strathdee by the bosonic coordinates of the supersymmetry automorphism (or R symmetry) group. The harmonic superspace approach provides a concise, manifestly covariant and off-shell description of all of the N = 2 supersymmetric theories, at both the classical and quantum levels. It also offers the unique way to construct an off-shell formulation of a theory with higher supersymmetry, namely, the N = 3 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Harmonic Superspace , pp. xiii - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001