Nonlinear supersymmetry, brane–bulk interactions and super-Higgs without gravity

Abstract

We derive the coupling of a hypermultiplet of N = 2 global supersymmetry to the Dirac–Born–Infeld Maxwell theory with linear N = 1 and a second nonlinear supersymmetry. At the level of global supersymmetry, this construction corresponds to the interaction with Maxwell brane fields of bulk hypermultiplets, such as the universal dilaton of type IIB strings compactified on a Calabi–Yau manifold. It displays in particular the active role of a four-form field. Constrained N = 1 and N = 2 superfields and the formulation of the hypermultiplet in its single-tensor version are used to derive the nonlinear realization, allowing a fully off-shell description. Exact results with explicit symmetries and supersymmetries are then obtained. The electric–magnetic dual version of the theory is also derived and the gauge structure of the interaction is exemplified with N = 2 nonlinear QED of a charged hypermultiplet. Its Higgs phase describes a novel super-Higgs mechanism without gravity, where the goldstino is combined with half of the hypermultiplet into an N = 1 massive vector multiplet.