Gauge fixing and residual symmetries in gauge/gravity theories with extra dimensions

Abstract

We study compactified pure gauge/gravitational theories with gauge-fixing terms and show that these theories possess quantum mechanical supersymmetriclike symmetries between unphysical degrees of freedom. These residual symmetries are global symmetries and generated by quantum mechanical $\mathcal{N}=2$ supercharges. Also, we establish a new one-parameter family of gauge choices for higher-dimensional gravity and calculate as a check of its validity one graviton exchange amplitude in the lowest tree-level approximation. We confirm that the result is indeed $\ensuremath{\xi}$ independent and the cancellation of the $\ensuremath{\xi}$ dependence is ensured by the residual symmetries. We also give a simple interpretation of the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity, which arises in the lowest tree-level approximation, from the supersymmetric point of view.