Massive N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 2 supergravity in three dimensions

Abstract

There exists two distinct off-shell ${\mathcal{N}}=2$ supergravities in three dimensions. They are also referred to as ${\mathcal{N}}=(1,1)$ and ${\mathcal{N}}=(2,0)$ supergravities, and they arise from the coupling of the Weyl multiplet to a compensating scalar or vector multiplet, respectively, followed by fixing of conformal symmetries. The ${\mathcal{N}} =(p,q)$ terminology refers to the underlying anti-de Sitter superalgebras $OSp(2,p) \oplus OSp(2,q)$ with $R$-symmetry group $SO(p) \times SO(q)$. We construct off-shell invariants of these theories up to fourth order in derivatives. As an application of these results, we determine the special combinations of the ${\mathcal{N}}=(1,1)$ invariants that admit anti-de Sitter vacuum solution about which there is a ghost-free massive spin-2 multiplet of propagating modes. We also show that the ${\mathcal{N}}=(2,0)$ invariants do not allow such possibility.